Pokemon: Divinus
by DarkSlash9
Summary: College-fic. AU. After a freak accident during an unusual meteor shower, 5 long-time friends are changed forever when they discover that the incident gifted them with extraordinary powers and abilities. But power has a habit of corrupting some, and when mixed with jealousy, disaster is inevitable... Advanceshipping! Twinleafshipping! Cavaliershipping! Pearlshipping and more!
1. Paradigm Shift

**Hi everyone! My name is Jason, but go ahead and call me DarkSlash9! Welcome to my newest story, Pokemon: Divinus. As you may or may not have known, I was, and still am, ridiculously excited to write this story, because I think it will be my most well-written story yet, due to things such as me actually planning out the full story, and me being an overall better writer now, compared to when I began all my other stories. This story is rated T right now, but it might be bumped up to M. We'll see.  
**

**I came up with the idea for this story after watching the awesome film known as _Chronicle. _If you've seen that movie, expect to see a few similar points in the plot, but not too many. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly suggest you do. It's an 8/10 in my opinion.**

**There _are _pokemon in this story, but they wont have any powers. They'll just be normal animals, the small cute ones like a Pikachu or a Piplup being domesticated house pets, while larger ones like Emboar or Onyx will be considered as dangerous, wild animals. As for evolution, I will be using the real-life, Charles Darwin theory of evolution. Which means a Charmander will not evolve into a Charmelion. Instead, Charmanders, Charmeleons and Charizards will be close cousins in their genus. Same goes for all other pokemon evolutions.  
**

**Here are the ages for the main characters:**

**Ash: 20**

**Gary: 20**

**May: 19**

**Barry: 19**

**Dawn: 19**

**Shippings in this story:**

**Advance**

**Pearl**

**Cavalier (1-sided)**

**Twinleaf**

**and some others that shall remain hidden.**

**I hope you all enjoy the first chapter!  
**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Paradigm Shift

* * *

_"Jealousy is a disease. Love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy - in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion barely leaves room for the other."_

_- Robert A. Heinlein_

* * *

It was a chilly, Spring night. The stars shined brightly from above, not a single cloud present to mask their beauty. The moon shed it's soft, calming light down on the fields below, giving a dim yet beautiful glow to the green grasses and the dirt paths. It was a breezy night, causing the tall trees of the Kanto Region to gracefully sway back and forth in a steady rhythm. This, of course, was accompanied with the sound of rustling leaves. Not the softest of sounds, but a natural one, nonetheless.

Five young adults walked down the dirt road before them, three males, and two females. While three of them were observing the beautiful environment around them, one was cowering in fear, and the last one simply didn't care. These 5 young adults had known each other for many years, some of their individual friendships over a decade old. But they had come together as a group of friends in middle school, and they had stayed friends til they graduated high school. Not wanting to separate, they all applied to the same colleges and universities, and much to their satisfaction, they all were able to go to the same college.

They were already in their second year of college, some of them 20 years old, some of them 19. They had just left a party. As expected of a college party, alcoholic beverages were available for anyone to drink. Most of them had not taken any, but one of them did. He had taken so much that he could barely walk correctly. Luckily, his best friend was there to help him walk.

There was also dancing at the party, and while all five of them danced, one of the female friends left everything on the dance floor, dancing for almost the whole party. By the end she was exhausted, barely able to walk. She was currently receiving a piggyback ride from one of her friends.

Then there was the last one. She was walking in front of everyone else, her movement not hindered by a drunken friend or a tired girl. Her breathing was rather sporadic, and her shoulders would slightly twitch at any new sound she heard. Her eyes darted around, and every once in a while, she'd let out a small whimper. It was clear that she was afraid. Finally, she had had enough. She turned around and faced her friends, her fists clenched.

"Ugh! I can't take this any more! I _hate _forests!" yelled the girl, fear evident in her voice. She was 19, with long, navy blue hair. Her eyes were the same exact color, and the blue color that defined most of her appearance went perfectly with her smooth, pale skin. "Why are we even here?!"

"I'm sorry Dawn, but I told you, going through the forest is the quickest way to _this_ idiot's apartment." spoke one of her friends, gesturing towards the young man he was helping walk. He had unruly raven hair, chocolate brown eyes, and tan skin. He had small Z shaped birthmarks on his cheeks, but by the way the birthmarks looked, most people would think that they were scars. Overall he looked like a dangerous guy, but that couldn't have been any further from the truth.

"H-hey, stop that A-ash!" slurred the young man who had just been called an idiot. He had a head of spiky brown hair, which perfectly complimented his often ridiculous, devil-may-care attitude. "I, Gary Motherf-fucking Oak, ammmmmm not an idiot!"

"Well, only an idiot drinks so much beer that he has to be walked home by four people." muttered the third and final guy, a half smirk on his face. He had blonde hair, and what looked like orange eyes. Just by the way his hair was wildly shaped, anyone could predict that he was a hyperactive person. After his comment, he turned to Dawn and smiled. "Don't be afraid Dawn, I'm here to protect you if anything goes wrong. You're safe with me!"

"Oh please, Barry," interrupted the fifth and final person. She sported a red bandana, and had beautiful brown hair which fell to her shoulders. Her sapphire eyes were struggling to stay open, but she was still able to be an active member of the conversation, no matter how tired she was. She was still being carried on Barry's back, her legs still weak from all the dancing she had done at the party. "we all know you're a pacifist."

"While that might be true, May," answered Barry. "for little Dawn here, I'd break a few of my personal rules."

"Awwww, that's just adorableeeee." said Ash sarcastically. Barry grinned, while Dawn faced the other way, hiding the blush that was forming on her face. Just then, Gary, in his drunken stupor, tripped over a rock. Since most of Gary's weight was on Ash, Ash almost fell down with him. But luckily, Ash was able to regain his balance. "Dammit Gary, I'm really tempted to just leave you here in the forest."

Gary burped before answering Ash. "Go ahead b-bitch, I happen to _like_ trees."

"You see Gary? This is why you shouldn't drink alcohol. 1. We're underage, and 2. You're causing trouble for all of us." scolded Dawn.

At the sound of Dawn's voice, Gary seemed to sober up a bit. Ever since he met her in middle school, he had always had a soft spot for her. Of course, they had always remained just friends, but Gary would be lying if he said he didn't want to be more than that. His small crush on her had grown into full fledged love in the past 7 years of their friendship, and there were times where he had almost considered making a move, only to back out at the last second.

"I'm s-sorry Dawwwn." he said, as if he was being scolded by his mother. "But come on, I'm 20. Legal drinking a-age is 21. I'm only underage by a year..."

"It could be one year, or it could be ten. Underage is underage." said Dawn, shaking her head. "Next time we all go to a party, I'm making sure you don't drink as much as you did tonight."

Gary looked down at the ground below, Dawn's words causing guilt to build up inside him. He looked around, and saw that judging by everyone's facial expressions, they were all tired. As beautiful as the forest was, none of them really wanted to be there, taking Gary back to his apartment. All of them would have much rather been in their dorms, sleeping. But they all cared for Gary, and knew that in his current state, he wouldn't have been able to find his way home. They couldn't let their friend of 7+ years out into the world a drunk mess. Gary began to realize that, and he slowly became more and more sad.

"I'm... I'm sorry guys." said Gary, trying his best to suppress the alcohol that was hindering his thought processes. "Th-this is my faulllllt... I'm a bad friend..."

"Nah," yawned May. "You just partied a little too hard. Everyone's done it before. Just be more careful next time."

"That was some party though..." said Barry, staring at the skies above. "I don't even remember what or who it was for, but I do know it was fun."

"It was for Misty Waterflower." explained Ash. Barry tilted his head. Ash sighed. "You know, the captain of the girls swim team? She's got the current school record for like, half the events."

"How do you know so much about her?" asked Barry suggestively. "You stalking her or somethin'?"

"No," answered May in Ash's stead. There was a hint of irritation present in her voice. "Everyone knows that."

"Wow Ash, your voice got really feminine all of a sudden." joked Barry.

"Shut up Barry." grumbled Ash.

The rest of the walk through the woods was spent in comfortable silence. With determination to prove to Dawn that he wasn't _that _drunk, Gary removed himself from Ash, attempting to walk on his own. He was moving, but it could in no way, shape, or form be classified as walking. It was a kind of lackadaisical strut of sorts, his limbs flailing around in various directions, while his his feet dragged on the ground. But he was moving by himself, and that was enough for him.

After a few minutes, the amount of trees surrounding the long-time friends began to decrease, and before they knew it, the woods were gone, replaced by open, grassy fields. They all had expected to see a city over the horizon, but much to their surprise and confusion, there was no city in sight. Only what seemed like endless green hills and grasslands. Everyone looked at the fields, then at each other. They were all thinking the same thing, but no one wanted to admit it. Finally, someone decided to speak up.

"We're lost, aren't we?" asked Dawn.

"Yeah..." answered everyone else in unison.

"Well, now what?" asked May, hopping off of Barry's back. "We don't know where we are, and it's what, 1:00am?"

"Wh-why don't we just ssspend the night here?" asked Gary.

"I'd have no problem with camping... but we don't have any camping supplies." said Ash looking around. "Not even an axe to cut some firewood..."

"Who needs supplies?" said Barry. "We can just lay down and watch the stars til we all fall asleep. That's even better than camping. Then when we all wake up, we'll find our way back to the town."

Everyone looked around, mumbling all sorts of different forms of the word 'yes'. Dawn was the first to lay down, followed by Barry, who decided to lay a few inches away from her. Gary saw this and felt a deep fire burning inside. He quickly stumbled over and fell to the ground, a few inches away from Dawn, on the side opposite of Barry. Dawn, aware of their close proximity, awkwardly stared at the night sky, a small blush on her cheeks. Ash decided to lay by himself, a few feet away from Dawn, Gary and Barry. He glanced at May, who was still deciding where to lay. She looked at Ash, and for a split second, they made eye contact. However, she immediately looked away. She walked over to the rest of the group, deciding to lay next to them.

Ash sighed. He didn't expect her to lay with him anyway. Maybe she would have a couple years ago, but they were no longer as close as they were a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago, May was Ash's second best friend, only behind Gary. Their friendship had deteriorated in the past two years, and very recently, did it start rebuilding. The reason for the deterioration? Drew, May's ex-boyfriend. Ash had always been very protective over May. He was like that ever since they became friends in middle school. It took him five whole years to realize that it was because he was deeply in love with her. He realized this during the summer after their high school graduation. But unfortunately, right when Ash finally realized his true feelings, May met Drew. Drew and May hit things off very well, and 2 weeks after they met, they were dating. This left an ocean of despair in Ash's soul, causing him to slowly drift away from May. May hadn't even noticed, as she was also drifting away from Ash, using most of her free time to be with Drew. May and Drew dated for almost two years, until they had a non-violent, mutual break up. Only then did May decide to re-kindle her old friendship with Ash, who was still in love with her.

Ash stared at the starry skies. He waited for someone to start a conversation, but it seemed none of them felt like talking. With nothing else to do, Ash decided to look for constellations. He was never very good at finding them, but always tried when he had the chance. The only one he could ever find was Orion, and that was because of how Orion's belt was shaped. Three stars, lined up next to each other. He stared at the belt, and his eyes slowly began to close, sleep overtaking him. But right when they were about to fully close, he saw something peculiar. It was a small, green streak of light, shooting across the sky. His eyes opened wide, and just in time too, because even more green streaks shot across the night, creating a beautiful display.

"Guys! Wake up! Look!" yelled Ash as he sat up, pointing upwards.

"Huh?" asked Barry groggily, rubbing his eyes. He looked up at the sky, and raised both his eyebrows. "Woooaaaaaaahhhhh... a meteor shower!"

Barry pulled out his phone, and pointed the camera towards the sky, capturing the streaks of green light on video, while everyone else watched in awe.

"There's so many..." said Dawn. "So pretty..."

"Hey, this may just be the alcohol fucking with me, but I'm p-pretty sure that one's red, instead of... green!" half-yelled Gary, pointing up.

Everyone looked to where Gary was pointing, and he was right. There was indeed a red one, and it was moving much slower than the normal green ones. It was brighter than the rest too, making it stand out.

"Awwwwesome, red's my favorite color!" said both May and Ash, at the exact same time, in the exact same tone. They looked at each other. Ash smiled, and so did May. But that was all that happened, because Gary interrupted the small moment with another exclamation.

"Hey, this may just be the alcohol fucking with me, but it looks like the r-r-red one is going off course!" observed Gary.

Everyone looked, and Gary was right again. While all the green meteorites were flying by in the same arc and direction, the red one seemed to be going in a different direction. Downwards.

"Wait a minute..." said Ash, his eyes narrowing. The meteor was definitely heading downwards, but there was something awfully frightening about the exact direction it was heading in. Ash and Dawn's eyes widened, as they seemed to be the only ones that figured it out right away.

"By the way it's flying, it's going to land... right on us!" cried Dawn.

"R-really?!" asked Barry excitedly. "Sweet."

"No dumbass, not sweet!" retorted May. "_Dying _ is not sweet!"

"Hey, this may just be the alcohol fucking with me, but we should p-probably run." said Gary, seemingly unafraid of the red meteor that was approaching.

"Good idea!" answered Ash, standing to his feet. "Let's get to a safer area!"

Everyone stood to their feet and ran, heading to a safer place. The meteor was getting closer and closer, and it was becoming more and more probable that it was going to land where they had been laying. Finally, they had reached a hill larger than the rest. They all ran around the hill, once they had reached the other side, they all stopped to catch their breath. It seemed like a safe distance, about half a mile away from where they were before. Once his breath was caught, Ash looked around. Everyone was there except...Gary. Everyone else looked around, and soon, they all realized it too. Ash face-palmed.

"Gary Motherfucking Oak..." he growled under his breath. "Ugh, I swear, I am going to kick his drunk ass when this is all over."

"What are you going to do?" asked May.

Ash paused for a second, surprised that May had spoken to him directly. She only did that about once a day. But he knew that there was no time for him to blush or be surprised. Gary was out there, right in the path of a destructive projectile from outer-space. Without any more hesitation, Ash gave May an answer.

"I'm going to go get him." he said as he ran away, heading back towards the hill they were on minutes ago.

Ash ran as fast as he could. The direction in which he was running gave him a perfect view of the meteor. It was odd; it was indeed going to land where Gary was, but it was falling at a very slow pace, as if gravity had less of an effect on it. But it was still falling, which meant it was still dangerous. When Ash had reached the halfway point, he saw something in the distance. He continued to run, deciding that he'd find out what the object was when he got to it. But a few seconds later, he realized what it was. It was Gary. Gary was rolling down a hill, laughing aloud like the intoxicated buffoon he was.

"Gary! What the hell are you doing?!" shouted Ash.

"Oh, hey Ash! You should t-try this, it's off the hooooook!" laughed Gary as he rolled past Ash.

"You idiot! There's a meteor heading straight for us, and you're rolling around in the grass?!"

"I couldn't sssstand up, so I concluded that rolling was the only option!" replied Gary, semi-seriously.

"Grrrrrr... whatever, come on!" growled Ash as he grabbed Gary by the arm, helping him stand up.

"Woah man, I could barely w-walk before. Do you really think I'm in any condition to run?" asked Gary.

"Dammit Gary!" roared Ash as he grabbed Gary and slung him over his shoulder.

With Gary retrieved, Ash ran back to everyone else, as fast as he could. But he couldn't run very fast, considering a 20 year old man was on him. He kept his eyes focused on the large hill that everyone was hiding behind. Not once did he look back, not wanting to waste any time. Gary, who had a perfect view of the meteor, gasped. It was about to hit the ground, and it was the size of a mini-van. Gary watched as the meteor made contact, creating a small explosion of purple and red light. A large booming noise was heard, and a visible wave of force radiated from the impact. Gary's eyebrows raised.

"Ummm, Ashy-boy?" asked Gary, his eyes on the wave of force rushing towards them.

"Yeah?!"

"You're um, gonna need to run f-faster." said Gary, pointing behind them.

Ash turned his head around, and from the corner of his eye, saw what Gary was seeing. The colorful explosion, and the wave of force a few inches away from them. His eyes widened. "HOLY SH-"

Ash and Gary were pushed into the air by the force, sending them flying towards the hill that their friends were behind.

Ever since Ash had left, May and Dawn had been anxiously waiting for his return. May started to nervously pace back and forth, while Dawn sat next to Barry, hyperventilating. Barry simply watched the two silently, his phone still recording everything. Barry had tried to calm them down, and it almost worked too. Right when he had gotten through to them, the meteor hit the ground, making the large booming noise. Of course, that sent the girls back into panic mode. But fortunately for Barry, Ash and Gary could be heard screaming in the distance, which meant they were alive. The screams were getting louder too, which meant they were getting closer.

May and Dawn looked at each other, but before any words could be spoken, a small "_thud" _sound was heard on top of the hill they were behind. Barry, Dawn, and May looked up, and saw Ash and Gary tumbling down the hill, heading straight for them. Ash began to roll to the side of the hill, where nobody was. He landed face first into the ground, his face submerging itself in mud. Gary tumbled straight towards Dawn, and lucky for him, his head landed on her lap, while the rest of his body was on the the grass. Gary's black eyes looked up into Dawn navy ones, a smirk on his face.

"Why hello there." he said.

Dawn was not amused. She flicked Gary's forehead angrily.

"You are _never _drinking alcohol again, _got it?_" she said through gritted teeth.

"G-got it." answered Gary, stuttering out of fear.

"You'd better." commented Ash as he walked over, wiping the mud and dirt off his face. May was beside him, staring at him from the corner of her eye. "I risked my life to save your drunk ass."

"Thaaanks..." said Gary.

"Alright, now that we're all here, why don't we go check out the meteor?" asked Barry as he stood up, his phone _still _recording everything. "I wanna see if there's ALIENS in it!"

"There's no such thing as aliens, Barry." giggled Dawn as she stood up, Gary's head sliding off her lap in the process. "But I do want to examine it."

"Me too. I wanna take a piece of it and give it to Max for his birthday. He likes stuff like this." said May, walking away. "You guys coming or not?"

"We're coming." answered Dawn, helping Gary off the ground. Once on his feet, Gary awkwardly thanked her.

"Let's goooo~~!" yelled Barry, running ahead of everyone else. "I'm gonna go see me some aliens!"

Barry led the group up the hill, and when they reached the top, everybody gasped. As expected, there was a crater where the meteor had landed. What was shocking was the purple, red, and cream colored lights that seemed to be pulsating from the crash site.

"Well," said Ash, eyebrows raised. "that's not normal."

"I don't want to go anymore." droned May. "That looks really sketchy."

"But didn't you want t-to go there so you could get a errr, a ummm, a present! A present for Max?" asked Gary.

"That was before I saw the light show." answered May.

"Oh it's probably some left over ions caused by friction or something. The light should die down by the time we get there." said Dawn scientifically.

"Or it could be aliens! Only one way to find out!" hollered Barry as he sprinted down the hill, phone still in hand.

Everyone followed Barry towards the crater, having to listen to his ramblings about aliens and Star Wars the whole time. It got to the point where everybody just tuned him out, focusing on other things to help them ignore Barry's voice. Gary had focused on Dawn, who was walking ahead of him. More specifically, her butt. He wouldn't have stared at it if he was sober, but when he was drunk, and his eyes tended to wander more. Ash had focused on the light radiating from the crater, wondering if it was really what Dawn said it was. He doubted it, because he'd never seen those colors from a meteor before. May was watching Ash out of the corner of her eye again, for reasons she kept a secret. She found herself doing that more and more everyday. Dawn wasn't focusing on a specific person or object. She was blankly staring ahead, trying to organize the many thoughts that always seemed to be bouncing around in her head.

With all their minds elsewhere, it seemed like they got to the impact crater in no time at all. It was a large and deep crater, one that could be considered hazardous for an inexperienced explorer. They all stared down at the center of the crater, where the meteor lay. As Dawn predicted, the glow around the meteor had died down, but there was still something peculiar about it, giving off an eerie feel to the situation. The meteor was still glowing purple, cream and red, but instead of a normal glow spread evenly around the whole object, this glow had shape. The glow was in the shape of what looked like tentacles, tentacles that danced around the meteor, in an almost protective manner.

"Yeah," said Ash. "this is _definitely _not normal."

"It's... it's like an octopus..." whispered Gary in awe.

"A glowing, multi-colored, space octopus." added May.

"Looks like some sort of alien rock to me." said Barry in an Australian accent. "Crikey, I'm going down to take a look!"

Barry stepped forward, but before he could enter the crater, Ash pulled him back.

"Hang on there, Mr. Crocodile Hunter." said Ash slightly irritated with Barry's constant excitement. "We can't all go down there. The crater's gradient is too steep. Someone needs to stay up here so they can help everyone else out when we're done looking at it."

"You're not saying it should be me, are you?" asked Barry.

"That's exactly what I'm saying." said Ash with a smirk. "Dawn wants to examine it, Gary's too drunk for us to rely on him, May wants a piece of it, and that thing almost killed Gary and I. I deserve a close up look."

"But, but, but..." whimpered Barry.

"Don't worry Barry. Here, give me your phone. I'll record a video of the 'alien rock' for you." cooed Dawn sweetly. "Okay?"

"Alriiiiight..." sighed Barry, handing Dawn his phone. "I can't say no to a pretty lady. It's still recording, so all you have to do is hold it."

Dawn blushed and giggled, the same things she did _whenever _Barry flirted with her.

"Let's goooo guys... I want to meet the glowing muli-c-colored space octopus." whined Gary as he entered the crater.

Dawn immediately went in after him. "Be careful Gary! You're gonna hurt yourself!"

Ash wanted to enter the crater next, but apparently, so did May. Unfortunately, neither realized this until they bumped into each other. What ensued next was a series of stutters and nervous gestures, both of them apologizing over and over again. Barry had to snap his fingers in between the two of them to snap them out if it. Ash scratched the back of his head and gestured for May to go first. May grabbed Ash by the hand and they walked into the crater together.

"Woah, this is unexpected." said Ash, looking at May's hand intertwined with his own.

"What? I'm not allowed to hold my friend's hand?" asked May with a half-smile.

"No you _can_, it's just..." mumbled Ash, his eyes becoming sad. "I didn't really think you'd _want _to. Things just aren't the same as they used to b-"

"You guys, you g-gotta check this out!"

"Gary, stop that! They might be dangerous!" warned Dawn.

May and Ash looked, and saw Gary playing with the tentacles of energy. Dawn was watching from a few feet away, just out of the reach of the tentacles that Gary was dancing with. The tentacles didn't seem to do anything when Gary poked them or walked through them. They just continued their swirling dance, each tentacle phasing right through Gary whenever they had to.

Ash and May walked towards the meteor, but 3/4ths of the way there, May stopped. Ash looked back, confused.

"This is as far as I'm going. That thing is creeping me out." said May.

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Okay." said Ash, letting go of May's hand. "I'm gonna go get a closer look."

May watched as Ash continued the walk towards the meteor, passing a worried Dawn on the way there. As Ash passed the bluenette, she grabbed his arm tightly. Ash looked at her, an eyebrow raised.

"You're not seriously going any closer, are you?" asked Dawn.

"Why not?" asked Ash. "Gary's closer."

"Well that's because he's a drunk pile of stupid right now. You should know better than to go touch it. It's clearly no ordinary meteor."

"Just one touch shouldn't hurt. I'll be careful, nerd." answered Ash as he continued walking, his arm slipping out of Dawn's grasp.

"I hate when you call me that..." muttered Dawn.

Ash approached the meteor, paying no attention to Gary, who was still trying to dance with the tentacle things. The closer he got to the actual rock, the stronger the smell of burnt rubber became. His arms and legs began to tingle, but he ignored the sensations. When he was finally within arms reach of the meteor, he placed a hand on it, wanting to feel the texture of the surface. He _immediately_ pulled his hand back, growling a few swears as he shook his hand in the air. It was still hot, and Ash could see what looked like small burns on his hand.

"Eyyy, Ashy-boy!" called Gary.

"Hmm?" answered Ash turning around.

As soon as Ash turned around, Dawn, Gary, and May gasped, the girls cupping their hand over their mouths. Ash looked around at their faces, confused.

"Ash! Your nose!" cried Dawn.

"My... nose?" he asked. He felt it, and if felt normal. But when he looked at the hand he felt it with, he understood. There was blood. Lots and lots of blood on his hand. He looked down to his shirt, and saw a plethora of blood stains. But what made matters worse was that he could see the drops of blood falling from his nose to the grass below. His nose was bleeding, profusely. "Crap, this was a brand new shirt too."

"Ash, just get away from that thing!" called May.

Ash looked up from his shirt, once again surprised that May had spoken to him first. But the surprise was quickly converted to a different type of surprise, when he saw May's face. A small river of blood was seeping out of her nose as well, and just like him, she didn't seem to notice.

"Umm May, your nose is bleedi-"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"screamed Dawn, pointing to Gary.

Gary's nose was bleeding, just like Ash and May's. Dawn then looked down at her own shirt, and sure enough, it was blood-stained, more blood falling from her own nose. Dawn wasn't squeamish, but seeing that much blood was enough to make anyone faint. She collapsed onto the ground, face up, Barry's phone still in hand. It was then that the tentacle-like glow around the meteor became less graceful, and more violent-looking. The tentacles started to move around sporadically, in different angles and directions. They were no longer beautiful.

"Dawn!" yelled Gary, who immediately lost all silliness in him when he saw her collapse. He tried to run to her, but ended up falling flat on his face.

Barry couldn't hear what they were saying from the top of the crater, but he knew something was wrong when he saw Dawn collapse. He quickly ran into the crater, completely forgetting about the job he had been assigned earlier.

"Dawn!" yelled Barry, running towards everyone else. "What's going on?!"

"Barry?!" yelled Ash, who was kneeling beside Dawn, trying to wake her. "What are you doing?!"

"What happened to Daw- agghhh!" cried Barry, blood practically exploding out of his nose mid-sentence. He tripped and fell, landing face first on the ground. He lifted his head, and saw a puddle of blood where his face had landed. "What the heck?! My nose!"

"We're all gonna die..." mumbled May sadly as she began to stumble back and forth. She then collapsed, unconscious.

"Not May too!" cried Ash.

"Umm, Ash?" asked Gary.

"WHAT?!" snapped Ash, turning to Gary.

The tentacles of energy that were surrounding the meteor had wrapped themselves around Gary, restraining him.

"Get these things o-off of meeeee!" screamed Gary as the tentacles pulled him into the air. The tentacles around Gary quickly tightened their grip on Gary, and somehow, that knocked him out. The tentacles then released their grip on the young man, dropping him onto the cold, hard ground. This left just Barry and Ash as the only conscious people.

_"Well, **that** escalated quickly." _thought Barry.

"Gary!" yelled Ash. "What the fu- UUUGHHH!"

Ash howled in pain. A sharp, hot pain was running straight through his torso, almost immobilizing him. His widened eyes looked down, and saw that one of the tentacles had impaled him from his back through to his chest, effectively leaving a softball sized hole through his body. Blood sputtered from his mouth as he collapsed onto Dawn, his face landing on her chest.

"Lucky bastard..." muttered Barry, seeing how Ash had landed on Dawn.

But just then, even more blood erupted out of Barry's nose. He tried his best to stay conscious, but he was losing a lot of blood. He eventually gave in and went limp, his consciousness fading away. When all five of them were unconscious, the tentacles of energy around the meteor returning to their rhythmic, swirling dance, as if nothing had ever happened.

And the winds of the chilly Spring night blew, swaying the blood-stained grasses back and forth. Back and forth.

* * *

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

A pair of brown eyes cracked open, and within the same second that the alarm clock began to ring, it was turned off. The 20 year old sat up, and yawned, his raven hair covering his tired eyes. Through the window of his dorm room, sunlight entered, illuminating the otherwise dark room. He glanced at the clock. 8:30am. He removed his blanket from his lap and stood up.

_"Damn, that was some party last night..."_ thought Ash, stretching as arms and legs. It was then that he recalled all the events from the night before. The last thing he remembered was everybody's noses bleeding. He looked down at himself, and saw that he was in a different shirt than he was the night before. But then he realized that he was in his dorm room, not in a grassy field in the middle of nowhere. He shrugged his shoulders. _"That was a crazy dream...I gotta tell everyone else about it..."_

Now fully awake, Ash walked over to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He looked himself in the mirror, and for the first time in his life, his own reflection scared the living daylights out of him. His eyes were _extremely _bloodshot, and there was dried blood all over the lower half of his face. He ran back to his bed, and examined his pillow. There was no blood on his pillow, which meant his nose had to have bled before he went to bed.

_"That **was** a dream, right?" _thought Ash, walking back to the bathroom.

He quickly splashed some water on his face, washing off the blood. As he washed his face, he heard what sounded like a door opening. He quickly turned off the faucet and jogged out of the bathroom, thinking someone had entered his dorm. But much to his confusion, nobody had done such a thing. His door was closed. He walked towards the door and opened it. He poked his head into the hallway. All he saw was somebody on the far end of the hall, exiting their dorm room. Ash's eyes widened.

_"How was I able to hear them open their door all the way from here?"_

Ash slowly closed his door, and went back to the bathroom.

After washing his face and brushing his teeth, Ash went to his kitchen to make himself some breakfast. He opened the fridge, and stared at what was inside. Being college student, he didn't have much of a selection. His choices were ramen noodles, Hot Pockets, or Honey Nut Cheerios. He pulled out a Bacon, Egg & Cheese flavored Hot Pocket and tossed it in the microwave.

While his not-very-nutritious breakfast cooked in the microwave, Ash went to his desk and sat, planning on studying. He had and exam at 5:00pm, and he really needed to study for it. He opened his textbook, and opened a drawer. he shuffled through it until he found what he was looking for; his reading glasses. He put them on and tried to read his books, but found that he couldn't. The words were too blurry. he lifted an eyebrow and took off the glasses, concluding that the lenses were probably dirty. As he cleaned the lenses, he glanced at the textbook. He was able to see all the words, clearly and sharply, without the aid of his glasses.

"What in the world..."

Just then, the smell of his Hot Pocket invaded his nostrils. All the way from his desk. He put his reading glasses down and entered the kitchen. He opened a cabinet, and when he did, three glass plates fell out of it. He caught the first one, pushed the second one back into the cabinet before it completely fell out, and bounced the third one into the air with his knee and caught it, all in one fluid motion, without any of the plates shattering. He stood there for a few seconds, amazed at what he had just done. It was as if his reflexes had been increased tenfold.

He put the extra plate back in the cabinet, and walked over to the microwave. He took out his Hot Pocket, poured himself a glass of fruit punch, and went to his desk. He moved the books to the side and placed his 'breakfast' there. He took a bite into the Hot Pocket, and froze. It tasted... good. Very good. So good that he shoved the rest of the pocket into his mouth, devouring the whole thing in two bites. It was amazing. He could taste every seasoning, herb, and spice in the food, things that he'd never tasted in the bland meal before. He grabbed his cup of fruit punch and took a sip, and as he half-expected, he could taste each and every fruit present in the beverage. His eyes widened.

_"Whether that meteor thing was a dream or not, **something** must have happened to me last night..." _thought Ash as he looked at the clock. 8:51am. _"I have class in about 3 hours. I've got some free time... I'm going back to where that meteor landed, if that actually happened. Maybe I'll get some answers."_

Ash drank the rest of his juice, and stood. He took off his clothes and walked to his closet. The first thing he saw was his new shirt, blood stains all over it. He sighed.

"Nope, that definitely wasn't a dream." he said as he grabbed a white t-shirt, a green zip-up jacket and some gray pants. "I wonder if everyone else is okay..."

Once his clothes were changed, he headed towards the door. But before he left, he turned around and grabbed a pair of John Lennon style black sunglasses. He put them on his face so his extremely bloodshot eyes could be hidden. All set, he left his room, beginning his journey to the crash site. As he walked through the halls of his dorm building, his mind was completely enveloped in trying to remember what exactly had happened the night before. He remembered walking through the woods, he remembered laying on the hill, he remembered running, going back to save Gary, and he remembered all of them walking towards the crater. After that, it all became foggy and fragmented.

He stepped out of the building, and his thoughts were immediately put on hold. He was instantly overstimulated. The cold, Spring morning winds blew around, forcing Ash to endure the sound of millions of rustling leaves. He could hear every Pidgey and Spearow chirping, and every Beedrill buzzing. He could hear people's conversations from 20 feet away, and could see much further than he normally could. He shook his head and tried to ignore the symphony of sounds, focusing his mind on the task at hand. He had to find that meteor.

After about 20 minutes of walking and trying to ignore the millions of stimuli around him, Ash paused and stood still. He was already off campus, having reached a dirt road. The road lead to where the party was held, which was where Ash wanted to go. He knew if he reached the location of the party, he could find the meteor. But with his heightened senses, he kept on sensing a presence around him.

"Whoever you are, I know you're following me." he said out loud. "I can hear you breathing."

"Really?" asked Dawn, hopping out of a nearby bush. She was in a navy blue pea coat, and black jeans. She too was wearing a pair of black sunglasses, the lenses shaped like flowers. "You too?"

"'Me too' what?" asked Ash as he continued walking, not at all surprised that Dawn had hopped out of a bush.

"Your senses and reflexes are all sharper too?" asked Dawn, walking with Ash.

"Oh. Yeah, they are. I'm glad I'm not the only one... I'm actually on my way to the meteor now... You think the heightened senses have something to do with that meteor last night?" asked Ash.

"That has to be the reason..." said Dawn. "This feeling... I don't know how to describe it. It feels like I can do anything now."

"I know what you mean..." replied Ash. "Heightened reflexes, hearing, sight, taste and smell... I guess the only word that fits the description is-"

"Superhuman." said Dawn.

"I was going to say extraordinary, but that works too. So, why exactly were you following me?"

"I u-umm ahh..." stuttered Dawn nervously, a small blush on her cheeks. "I um, wanted to check out the meteor. Hey, are your eyes bloodshot too?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm wearing these." said Ash, pointing to his sunglasses.

"Same. That's also why I'm wearing mine... I really hope this is all reversible, I want to be normal again."

"Me too nerd, me too." replied Ash.

"Will you quit calling me that?" whined Dawn. "I _really _hate it."

"Never." chuckled Ash.

Dawn pouted and punched him in the arm. Or at least, she tried to. Ash caught her fist without even taking his eyes off the path ahead.

"How did you-"

"Heightened reflexes. Y'know, the ones we _just _talked about?" said Ash with a smirk. "Silly Dawn, you may be book-smart, but you've always been lacking in the common sense department."

"Oh whatever, Ass Ketchup." retorted Dawn, mischievous intent clear in her voice.

"What did you call me, _nerd?_"

"I called you Ass Ketchup, _Ass_."

Ash and Dawn stared at each other angrily, and for a split second, it looked like they were actually going to attack each other. But instead, they both burst into laughter, as if they had just witnessed the funniest thing of their lives. Ash and Dawn were too good of friends to ever fight. Ever since May and Ash drifted apart, Dawn had unknowingly taken May's place as Ash's best female friend. They got along quite well, as they were considered the smarter portion of the group, Dawn being book-smart and Ash being street-smart. They were always friends, but they had become best friends as of late, but it was just that. Ash did have feelings for her, but they were practically nothing compared to the feelings he had for May. And he viewed Dawn as off-limits, since he was well aware of Gary's interest in her. Pursuing a relationship with Dawn would be considered a major violation of Bro Code, a code of honor that Ash and Gary, being best friends since the age of 4, lived off of.

But as close as Ash and Dawn were, he had his dense moments. An example of his density would be the fact that he was completely oblivious to Dawn's crush on him. She sent signals all the time, but Ash never received them. The only time Ash wasn't a dense fool was when May was the subject. If it was May, he'd pick up every signal and analyze every detail carefully to make sure it was actually a signal to begin with. Dawn knew Ash's heart belonged to May, and she knew that there was little to no hope they'd ever end up together. She was okay with that though, because Ash wasn't the only boy who invaded her thoughts often.

"So..." said Dawn, her and Ash's laughter over. "How are things with May?"

"Shouldn't you already know?" asked Ash, amused. "When you're not studying or hanging out with me, you're hanging out with her. I'm sure you know more about the two of us than we ourselves know."

"This is true." answered Dawn.

"But I'll entertain you. I really miss the good old days." muttered Ash sadly, his eyes gazing at the dirt below them.

"What do you mean?" asked Dawn.

"I mean the days before May met Prince Charming and his bouquet of roses... " muttered Ash.

"But they broke up 3 weeks ago. You're already friends with her again." stated Dawn.

"Yeah, but it doesn't feel the same. Before, I could tell her anything. Now... now I feel like I can't. And something tells me she feels the exact same way. It's not that I don't trust her... I just feel like the empathy we had for so long has just... disappeared."

"Oh Ash, you've gotta be more optimistic. You know what she told me the other day? She told me to keep this a secret, but I'm willing to tell you anyway. She said you've changed in the last 2 years... for the better."

"How?" sulked Ash. "By becoming more sarcastic, boring, and introverted?"

"No," said Dawn, "She thinks you've matured."

"That's only because my heart was shattered into pieces. For a whole year I was a cold jerk, and only you and Gary were able to put up with my constant negativity. And even now, I only genuinely smile about three times a day. Honestly, I don't know how that comes off as maturity." said Ash, his enhanced eyes following a small Butterfree that flew around. "I'd see it as the exact opposite."

"Oh whatever. Point is, she has a crush on the new you." said Dawn. She immediately covered her mouth. She didn't want to say that, but it slipped out.

"Really?!" said Ash, his mopey mood seemingly evaporating at the sound of such good news.

"Yeah, really." said Dawn, ashamed of herself for telling May's secret to Ash.

"Alright. I have just upgraded from three smiles a day to four." said Ash, smiling. "Maybe five if we're lucky."

"Congratulations." laughed Dawn. The both of them paused, looking at their surroundings. "Well, here we are. Misty's party was held straight ahead, which means..."

"_Those_ are the woods that we walked through." said Ash, pointing the their left. "You ready?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"You're afraid of forests."

"Only at night." replied Dawn, rolling her eyes. "Let's go."

Dawn jogged on ahead, and Ash followed. They jogged through the forest, and a few minutes in, they both realized the same thing. They weren't losing their breath, nor were their legs getting tired, nor were they getting sweaty. They looked at each other, both of them shrugging their shoulders. They decided to run faster, thinking they might have been imagining things. Still no sweat. They ran even faster, breaking into sprints. Much to their surprise, they were still showing no signs of exhaustion. Finally they stopped running, their breathing at normal pace.

"Wow. We just ran a mile, and we're not even breathing heavily." observed Ash.

"Well, looks like we've found another symptom: an unlimited supply of energy." said Dawn.

"I'm starting to like these abilities more and more." said Ash.

"Maybe they're not all that bad." agreed Dawn, looking around. "So, which way now?"

"I'm pretty sure that we went that way." answered Ash, pointing to their right. After a few seconds of thinking, he nodded his head. "Yeah, we definitely went that way last night. We should be out of the forest in less than two minutes if we run."

"I'll race you!" challenged Dawn as she sprinted ahead.

"Okay." answered Ash as he jogged after her.

Much like Ash had predicted, they had gotten out of the forest in no time, Dawn winning the race due to her head start. She waited for Ash by the exit of the woods, and much to her surprise, he simply walked out. Dawn's jaw dropped.

"You didn't even run the full distance." she stated.

"I got bored," answered Ash, an apple in his hand. It had a few bites taken out of it. "so I found an apple tree, climbed it, and got an apple instead. These things taste _a lot _sweeter with our powers. Want a bite?"

"No."

"Fine then." he said, nonchalantly throwing the half-eaten apple behind him. He looked around, and sure enough, they were in the hilly grasslands that they were in the night before. "Alright, I'm pretty sure that the crater should had been... wait a minute. Where's the crater?"

"Oh yeah... it should be right around here..." said Dawn looking around. "It landed where we were laying, which was right here."

"Maybe our memories are a little off. Let's get to the top of that hill over there so we can get a better view." said Ash, walking to the closest hill.

Dawn nodded and followed Ash to the nearest hill. They walked up the uphill slope, unable to see the top yet. Suddenly, both of the stopped walking and looked at each other.

"Did you hear that?" whispered Ash.

"Yeah, it sounds like someone's up there. I hear breathing."

"What if it's someone or something dangerous?"

"Dawn. We're super-people now. I'm sure we can take whatever is up there."

"Fiiiiiiiiine..." groaned Dawn as they continued their walk up.

When they reached the top, they saw what they had heard. It was a guy, his back turned to Ash and Dawn. He had a black sweatshirt on, and was wearing dark blue jeans. His spiky brown hair was flowing in the Spring breeze. He had a relatively carefree posture, his hands shoulders slumped and his hands in his pockets. Ash and Dawn recognized the him.

"Gary?" asked Ash, his head tilted.

"What are you doing here?" asked Dawn.

Gary turned around, revealing that he was wearing black aviator sunglasses, hiding his eyes. He seemed to have a straight face on, his eyebrows only furrowed slightly. He did not answer Ash or Dawn. He instead reached into his pocket, pulling out a small black object. At first Dawn and Ash didn't know what it was, but with their enhanced vision, they found out quickly. It was a pistol. Without the slightest trace of hesitation, Gary silently pointed it towards his two friends, his other hand still in his pocket.

* * *

**Chapter 1 complete! Forgive me if anyone thought this chapter was boring; I had to set everything up for the real story to begin. I plan to make this story around 20 chapters, but we'll see, knowing me, it might me longer. If you happen to leave a review, please tell me whether you think I should bump this story up to an M rating because of the blood. Seeya next time,**

**~DarkSlash9**


	2. But Wait, There's More

**Hey. Thank you for everyone who favorited and followed so far, and thanks to anyone who's here, reading this chapter right now. I've decided to keep this on a T rating, as I don't really think it needs to be rated M... yet.  
**

**Okay, there _is _humor in this story. But will it last? Yes, there will be humor throughout the story, but the humor won't be as abundant in the later chapters, when the story really gets serious. I plan on starting this story out with lighthearted fun, and slowly but surely shifting it to a darker feel. There will simply be little to no room for humor in the last few chapters.  
**

**As for the abilities the main characters have gained... will there be more? The answer is a big, fat YES. There are a few more surprises in store for the five friends, and their powers will evolve with them, just like their personal issues will. I have left small hints at what some of them will do with their powers in this chapter. Some, not all.**

**Q&A (I answer questions in your reviews. Feel free to ask anything, and I'll answer)  
**

AmericanBoy2016

Is Brock going to be involved in the story in any way, I mean he kinda should be, shouldn't he?

**Answer: He should, but unfortunately, I forgot all about him when I thought of this story. It's a shame too, Brock is one of my favorite characters, yet he hasn't played a major role in any of my stories yet.**

**Okay, enjoy Chapter 2 of Pokemon: Divinus!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

**Chapter 2  
**

But Wait, There's More

* * *

Ash raised an eyebrow, while Dawn's eyes widened. Gary's finger made its way towards the trigger.

"Gary, wait! Don't do i-"

_Bang Bang!_

Gary shot the gun two times, once at Ash, and once at Dawn. Dawn screamed, but as she screamed, she also hopped out of the bullet's path with cat-like reflexes. She landed on her feet, her eyes widened from fear. Ash, on the other hand, neither jumped out of the way nor screamed. He instead caught the bullet, his arm moving almost as if it had a mind of its own. As soon as he caught it, he frowned. It wasn't a bullet at all. It was a small, plastic sphere. He turned to Dawn and sighed.

"Calm down nerd, it wasn't a real gun." said Ash, throwing the plastic ball away.

"You guys too, huh?" asked Gary, putting his toy gun back into his pocket. He looked at Ash and Dawn, and frowned. Ash seemed rather unfazed by the event, but Dawn was fuming. "Oh... did you guys think that was a real gu-"

"Gary Goddamn Oak!" screamed the bluenette, stomping over to him. Gary continued to frown, and the frown only grew the closer Dawn got to him. Dawn grabbed him by the ear, her grip a formidable one. "What, are you insane or something?! I thought you were going to kill us! Or worse!"

"Ow! Ouch! Geez! I'm, owww! Sorry Dawn! I had to!" cried Gary. " Ouch! And it's Gary _Motherfucking_ Oak! Agghh! _Not_ whatever you just said!"

"Do you really think I give the slightest damn about the proper pronunciation of your idiotic nickname?! I'm more concerned with the fact that you just scared the living hell out of Ash and I!" yelled Dawn.

"Umm, for the record, I wasn't scared." interrupted Ash, waving at Dawn.

"Shut it, Ketchup!" roared Dawn.

"Goddammit, ouch! I'M SORRY DAWN." groaned Gary. "It was the only way I could make sure you guys had powers too! Now please, STOP PULLING MY EAR."

"Wait, so you have the powers as well?" asked Dawn, suddenly releasing her death-grip on Gary's ear. Gary fell to the ground face first, Dawn no longer holding him up by his ear. "The heightened senses along with the superhuman reflexes and endurance?"

"Yeah." answered Gary as he stood up. Once off the ground, he removed his sunglasses. As expected by Dawn and Ash, his eyes were bloodshot. "And my eyes are bloodshot. Very, _very_ bloodshot."

"So that explains why you pointed the gun at us... but why are you even here in the first place?" asked Ash.

"I wanted to know what happened here last night, so I came back here, duh." said Gary. "Thing is, I've been here for about an hour and a half, and the meteor is nowhere to be seen. I've searched this whole field, and nothing. It's like it disappeared from existence; even the impact crater is gone."

"Odd... So without the meteor, how are we going to fix this?" asked Dawn.

_"Fix this?" _asked both Ash and Gary in disgust.

"Yes, fix this."

"Dawn," said Ash, walking up to her. "I just caught a plastic bullet that was going at least 40 miles per hour. Why would I want to get rid of these powers? Everything tastes better, we don't get tired, and we have crazy good reflexes. They really add some pizazz to the drab life of a college student, especially when it comes to food. I swear, my Hot Pocket tasted like gourmet food this morning."

"What about the over-stimulation? You can't tell me you weren't overwhelmed when you walked outside this morning." said Dawn. "Does that add '_pizazz_' too?"

"Meh, we'll get used to it in no time." said both Ash and Gary.

"I can't believe you guys..." sighed Dawn. "But... I guess you're right. If the meteor is gone, these powers are most likely here to stay... I can't help but wonder how Barry and May are coping with them..."

"Speak of the devil..." muttered Ash, pulling out his phone. "Looks like I just got a text message from Barry. He wants me to gather everyone and go to his dorm room. He has something we need to see. May's dorm is in the same building as his, so he'll get her himself."

"Well, if he's already got May, then you have everyone else already." said Gary. "I may have been completely piss drunk, but I'm pretty sure there were only five of us there last night."

"Yeah, it was just us five." said Dawn, walking back towards the forest. "Let's go, I'm curious as to what Barry wants to show us. Maybe it could give us some answers... And I don't think we've ever been in his dorm before..."

Ash and Gary followed Dawn, starting their long walk back to their campus. The first few minutes were spent in silence, but eventually Gary spoke up.

"So guys, do you think Barry and May are accepting these abilities as well as we are? Because I think that the three of us have accepted this waaaaay too fast."

"I don't know." muttered Ash. "But I am willing to bet money that the word 'aliens' will come out of Barry's mouth at least once today."

"Hey, leave Barry alone." giggled Dawn. Gary sighed at the sound of Dawn defending Barry. She always did that. "With what happened last night, aliens isn't that crazy of a guess, right Gary?"

"Yeah whatever." replied Gary quickly. "Anyway, what about May? How do you think she's taking it?"

"Hmmm," hummed Ash. "I'm sure she's fine."

* * *

"May, you in there?" asked Barry, knocking on her door. Since he was not in possession of a pair of sunglasses like Ash, Dawn, and Gary, Barry had to resort to the only item he posessed that could somewhat cover his bloodshot eyes. A purple sombrero. Of course, that earned him many stares from people as he walked through the hallways, but he'd just smile at the people, as if it were perfectly normal to wear a purple, Mexican cowboy hat indoors.

"GO AWAY!" screeched May from inside her dorm.

"Come on, let Señor Barry in." said Barry in a Mexican accent. The sombrero was definitely influencing his behavior.

"EVERYTHING IS SO.. SO LOUD!"

"That's because you're yelling. I guarantee things will be quieter if you stop." said Barry, dropping his Mexican accent.

"AGGGGHHHHH!" cried May in agony. "MY EYES! THEY'RE SO-"

"Bloodshot. Your eyes are bloodshot. Mine too." said Barry. "Just let me in already, I'm going through the exact same stuff you are."

There was a pause. Through the door, Barry could hear footsteps. Then he heard the door unlock, and finally, May opened the door. She looked terrible. Her hair was a frizzy mess, the messiness rivaling Ash's. As expected, her eyes were bloodshot. She looked like she had seen things. Terrible things that would mentally scar her for life. She had a scared look on her face, and she was shaking.

"Wh-what do you w-want?" asked May shakily.

"My god, you look like a meth addict right now. You're really overreacting." said Barry as he entered May's dorm. May scowled.

"You have no idea what I'm going through!" she spat.

"Your senses are all really sharp and sensitive, and your reflexes are top notch. You're overstimulated by all of it." said Barry.

"...Maybe you _do_ know what I'm going through." said May bitterly. "You have it too?"

"Mmmhmm..." hummed Barry. "I feel like a badass."

"Well _I_ feel like a freak! I can't do anything without being overwhelmed! What do you think it is? How can we get rid of it?!"

"Ali-"

"Don't say aliens." sighed May.

"...*sigh* Just clean yourself up and come with me." said Barry, slightly upset that he was denied the opportunity to voice his opinion. "I have something to show all of you."

"What do you mean all of you... oh my gosh, where's everyone else?! Are they safe?! All I remember from last night is that meteor and our noses bleeding!"

"Ash is fine. I just texted him. He's with Dawn and Gary, so everyone's alive. Just take a shower, brush your hair, and put on some sunglasses. Ash and the rest are going to be knocking on my door soon. You might want to look good for Ash."

"Shut up, I don't... *sigh* just shut up, Barry." growled May, walking to the bathroom.

May closed the door behind her, leaving Barry alone in her dorm room. He looked at his surroundings. Red. Red everything. Red bedspread, red blanket, red pillows, red everything. Barry was someone who was easily bored, and soon enough, he was snooping around, looking for something to entertain himself with. He looked around, but didn't find anything worth investigating. That was, until he looked under May's bed. After digging through countless old clothes and crumpled notebook papers, Barry found a little book. It was red. It had a lock on it, but the lock was open. Barry opened the book, and read the inside of the cover.

_This diary belongs to May Maple. If you read it, I, May Maple, **will **find you. And **kill** you. You have been warned.  
_

Barry grinned and turned to the first page.

_"Dear Diary,_

_Hey there! My name's May Haruka Maple. I'm currently 17 years old. Yeah, a little too old for a diary, but better late than never. I'm going to start things off by telling you about this cute boy that I know. His name is Drew. He's-"_

Barry turned the page, not in the mood to read any lovey-dovey teenage love entries. He was bored, which meant he was looking for juicy info. He flipped through a couple pages, and was shocked to see that the first 30 or so pages were ALL ABOUT DREW. Barry groaned as he flipped through the pages, Drew's name visible at least 4 times on each page. Suddenly, he saw a different name. Ash. He quickly turned back to the page that he saw it on, and read carefully.

"_Dear Diary,_

_Well, Drew went on vacation with his family, which means I'm all alone for two weeks. It turns out all of my friends just happen to be on vacation this week as well. Barry, Gary, Dawn... they're all either with family or in a different region right now. The only person I know that's still on campus is... Ash. But I don't want to hang out with him. He's not... He's not my friend anymore. I don't know what got into him... he just slowly cut me off. I really have no idea what I did to him, but whenever I talk to Dawn about it, she always seems to defend him, as if it's perfectly fine for him to shut me out for no reason. It's so frustrating, because we used to be such good friends. We were so tight, and then he started acting funny around me, and then I met Drew, and then he just vanished from my life altogether. Whatever, I should stop talking about this. It's getting me angry. I guess I'll just spend the next 14 days here, watching Netflix or something. Love, May."  
_

Barry snorted. It seemed May had been completely oblivious to Ash's feelings for her. He flipped through some more pages, until he reached the latest entry. It was written two weeks ago.

_"Dear Diary,_

_Well, I have just completed my first week without Drew as my boyfriend. I'm enjoying it a little more than I thought I would. Drew was nice and all, but I didn't really feel anything for him, and he felt the same way. To be honest, I stopped liking him about a year into the relationship, but stayed with him because he was fun to have around. I know, that's terrible, but nobody's perfect, right? _

_Anyway, something interesting is happening tomorrow night. I'm going bowling with my friends. Yeah, that's nothing out of the ordinary. But what will make it interesting is the fact that Ash will be there. Yeah, Mr. Disappear-from-people's-lives. I wonder how that's going to go down. I'll be sure to write an update afterwards.  
_

_UPDATE:_

_Hello Diary. Well, I just finished bowling with my friends. To start things off, Ash is ridiculously good at bowling. It boggles the mind, really. He obliterated everyone. But that's not important. What's important is the fact that he's changed so much... I can't describe it. It's like I was speaking to a completely different person altogether. Yeah, I hadn't spoken to him in almost two years, but still, he has changed more than a normal person would in two years. He's quiet, dark, sarcastic... nothing like the jolly little dork I knew two years ago. Weird enough, I kinda like it. It matches his dark appearance, which has also significantly improved. He was always good-looking... but in a cute, kiddie way. Now he's like, attractive... and he's gotten taller... and he's put on some muscle. But not too much muscle either. He's the perfect size. To be honest, I might have a small crush on him. But I'm still upset about how he stopped talking to me. I asked Dawn if he was only acting all dark because I was there, but she said that he's always like that nowadays. I wonder what happened to him. Oh well. Hopefully, we can be friends agai-"_

"Barry, what are you doing?" asked May, emerging from the bathroom fully clothed. Her hair was brushed and blow-dried, and a pair of sunglasses covered her eyes. "Is that my diary?"

"Umm... no?" said Barry nervously.

"That's my diary." stated May, in a deadly calm voice.

"Is it?" asked Barry, shivering in fear. "I don't think is is."

"Yes, it is. You have 10 seconds to run." said May, cracking her knuckles.

Barry grabbed his sombrero and sprinted out of the room, choosing to take the elevator back down to his floor. Being on their college's Track and Field Team, Barry was a very good runner. He was fine with having to move quickly. But it still came as a surprise to him that he was not out of breath when he entered the elevator. He ran down a whole hallway at top speed, and hadn't even gotten tired. He shrugged his shoulders, just relieved that May hadn't caught him. But much to his shock, when the elevator door opened on his floor, May was there, waiting for him.

Barry tried to let out a very high-pitched scream, but before he could, May pulled him out of the elevator and covered his mouth with one hand, the other grasping his shirt tightly. She slammed him against the nearest wall, Barry's beloved purple sombrero falling off his head.

"Now you listen here, and you listen _well. _I am a trained, 1st-degree brown-belt in Tae Kwon Do. Been doing it for 5 years now. If you ever, _ever_ tell anyone about ANYTHING you read in that diary, I will be forced break my dojang's sacred rule of only using my martial arts for self-defense. And trust me, you do _not_ want that to happen." whispered May through gritted teeth. "Go it?!"

"Y-yes May." answered Barry, pure fear etched into his orange eyes.

"Good." said May, releasing her grip on Barry's shirt. "Now let's get to your room. I can hear Ash, Dawn, and Gary coming up the stairs now. And pick up your stupid sombrero."

Barry as he was told, and timidly walked over to his dorm. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door. He moved out of the way, allowing May to enter first. May had never been in Barry's dorm before. For some reason, whenever their group of friends met up, it would be in any of their dorms _except_ for Barry's. May had even been in Ash's dorm before she had been in Barry's, and Ash's dorm was in a different building, while Barry's was two floors below hers. She had expected it to be a mess, but much to her surprise, it was sparkling clean.

"Wow... this is... surprising." said May, looking around. His books were neatly lined up in a bookshelf, his bed laid, and not a piece of garbage or clothing on the floor. And to top it all off, the room had a nice, citrus scent to it. "I really thought your dorm would be a war-zone filled with garbage, pain, and destruction."

"Well it's not. Please take your shoes off by the door. I don't want them dirtying my rug." said Barry.

"Okay, okay." said May, taking her shoes off. "So you're a neat-freak, a pacifist, and a germaphobe?"

"Yep." answered Barry proudly.

_"No wonder Dawn likes him so much... he's practically made for her." _thought May with a smile.

"Wow Barry, your dorm is so... so neat!" gushed Dawn, entering the room.

Barry had left the door ajar, allowing the rest of their friends to walk in. Dawn was followed by Ash and Gary, the latter rolling his eyes, trying his best to ignore Dawn's praise over Barry's neatness. Ash sniffed around, and sighed in content.

"It smells awesome in here..." sighed the raven-haired student. "So lemony..."

"Hi there." said May, walking up to Ash.

"Oh, hi." said Ash.

Just then, he remembered what Dawn had accidentally told him earlier in the day. This brought a smile to his face. May gasped. Ash's smile was quickly replaced with a frown.

"What?" he asked.

"Y-you smiled!" she observed, the awe clear in her voice.

"Yes, yes I did." said Ash, smiling again.

"But you never smile... At least not genuinely..." interrupted Barry, just as shocked as May was.

"I do, you guys are just never around when I do it." said Ash, walking over to a chair in the corner of Barry's dorm. "So Barry, what is it that you want to show everyone? And please, take the sombrero off you head. It looks stupid on you."

"My dorm, I can wear what I want." retorted Barry. "Anyway, yes, I do have something you all need to see. Come on, everybody gather around Señor Barry."

As everyone walked over to Barry, he reached into a drawer and pulled a special cord out of it. He fished into his pocket, and pulled out his cell phone. He plugged one end of the cord into his phone, and the other end of the cord into his laptop, which was on.

"Wait a minute... Barry's phone recorded everything that happened last night!" realized Dawn.

"Exactly." said Barry as his laptop displayed a larger version of his phone's screen. "After waking up this morning with super powers and eyes redder than May's wardrobe, I did some thinking. You guys have all the symptoms too right?"

"Heightened reflexes." said Ash.

"Sharpened senses." added Gary.

"And unwavering endurance." finished Dawn.

"Yeah, those. Anyway, I did some thinking. I couldn't really remember much, but there were a few things that I did remember, those being the meteor shower, and of course, the meteor with the tentacles dancing around it. I also remembered Dawn passing out, and May passing out. After that, my memories faded, but it is relatively safe to believe that we all passed out last night. But then I remembered a crucial detail. _Dawn _was holding my phone when it happened, because you guys made me wait at the top of the crater."

"Oh yeah, that's tru-"

"But wait, there's more." said Barry, silencing May. "Then I wondered. If Dawn had my phone, how could I have it with me right now? Because I woke up with it in my pocket."

Everyone's eyes widened. Barry had just asked an extremely valid question, which was a surprise. Barry wasn't exactly the smartest person in the group.

"Y'know, that's a really good questio-"

"But wait, there's more." said Barry, silencing Gary. "Then I thought about something else. And these following questions are what creep me out the most... You all woke up in your beds, right?"

Most of the people in the room nodded.

"How did we get there?" asked Barry, nervously running a hand through the portion of his hair that wasn't covered by his sombrero.

Everyone gasped.

"Yeah, creepy shit." muttered Barry. "Even if one of us were to have somehow woken up... one person couldn't have carried everyone else to their dorms, and then take Gary to his grandfather's apartment. Someone, or _something, _moved us."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on. _I _didn't wake up in my bed. _I _woke up in the lobby of my dorm building, on the floor." said Dawn angrily. "You guys all woke up in your _beds_?!"

A chorus of "yes"s and "yup"s were heard from all of her friends.

"Unbelievable." growled Dawn, crossing her arms.

"Well who or whatever moved our bodies clearly didn't like you." said Ash.

"It would seem so..." said Dawn.

"Anyway," continued Barry. "I wanted to call you guys before I watched the video on my phone, because frankly, I was too scared to watch it alone. So, you all ready? Because this video most likely has the answers to what really happened last night."

Everyone nodded. Ash turned around and quickly jogged to Barry's door, closing it and locking it. Barry nodded and pressed play.

The video began with Barry recording the meteor shower.

"We all remember this part. Just skip to when we explore the crater, which by the way, is gone. Ash, Dawn, and I checked out the site this morning." said Gary, informing May and Barry of the crater's disappearance.

"Wow... okay, I'll skip on ahead." said Barry.

The video sped on forward, quickly showing every event that had happened the night before. Barry resumed normal play when he had reached the part where he gave his camera to Dawn.

(The video starts)

_Dawn quickly follows a drunken Gary into the crater. Gary immediately begins to play with the swirling tentacles, which causes to Dawn yell at him to stop. The camera then turns to Ash and May, who are walking down the crater hand in hand._

_"Aww..." whispers Dawn._

_The camera then returns to Gary who is still dancing with the tentacles. The camera stays on him until Ash walks past the camera's point of view. Dawn's arm comes onto the screen, pulling Ash back. Ash and Dawn talk a little, and Ash walks closer to the meteor. He tries to touch it, but it is way too hot. Ash turns around, and his nose is bleeding. The camera turns to May, whose nose is also bleeding. The camera then turns to Gary, who's nose is bleeding as well. Dawn screams, and suddenly she falls, unconscious. The camera lands in a way that Ash and Gary are still visible.  
_

_Ash rushes to Dawn, trying to wake her. Ash then looks off into the distance.  
_

_"Not May too!" he yells._

_"Um, Ash?" asks Gary as the tentacles wrapped themselves around Gary._

_"WHAT?!" snaps Ash._

_"Get these things off of meee!" yells Gary as the tentacles lift him off screen. He lands back into the camera's vision a few seconds later, unconscious._

_Ash yells Gary's name, and is about to say something else, but before he could finish his sentence, he is impaled from the back through to his chest by one of the tentacles.  
_

(Barry pauses the video)

Everyone looked at Ash as if he were some kind of otherworldly presence. Ash simply blinked his eyes, unable comprehend why he was being stared at by everyone.

"What?" he asked.

"You just witnessed yourself get stabbed through the chest... and you're totally fine with it?" asked Barry.

"How are you even _alive _right now?" asked Gary.

"I dunno. I didn't notice a hole in my chest this morning." mumbled Ash. He lifted his shirt, revealing his torso. It was clear that he spent a considerable amount of time at the gym. Every muscle was defined and covered with tan skin so smooth that any girl would pass out if she looked at it for too long. "See? Nothing."

Everyone looked, but for different reasons.

_"That's weird... The video clearly showed him getting impaled, but there's not even a scar..."_ thought Barry, his hand cupping his chin.

_"Show off." _thought Gary with a snort.

_"Those abs... dear lord... those abs..." _thought May, trying to control herself.

_"Mhmhmhmhmhmhmhmhmmm..." _thought Dawn. _"10/10."_

Ash pulled down his shirt, and noticed everyone's expressions. Both Dawn and May looked like they had just seen the most beautiful sight in the world. They were both blushing intensely, their faces blank. Gary was rolling his eyes, and Barry seemed to be the only one that had actually looked for the right reasons. Ash looked both girls in the eye, snapping them out their trances. Dawn looked off in a different direction, while May gained a sudden interest in her fingernails.

"Let's continue the video." suggested Barry, resuming the video.

(Video resumes)

_Ash collapses face down, falling on top of Daw-"_

(Barry presses the 'fast forward' button)

"What are you doing?" asked May.

"We don't need to see that part." said Barry, suddenly remembering the comment he made after seeing Ash's face land on Dawn's chest.

(Video resumes)

_All are unconscious, and the tentacles return to their swirling formation. Suddenly, the meteor takes on a bright, white glow, blinding the camera. When the bright light dies down, the meteor is gone, and so is the crater. Everyone is still unconscious, on a grassy field. Suddenly, their bodies take on a soft, purple glow. The glow lasts for 30 seconds, and dies down. Nothing else happens._

(Barry presses 'fast forward' again. The timer goes on and on, and nothing changes in the shot. Suddenly, a figure appears on the screen, and Barry presses 'play')

_A figure walks into the shot, their face obscured by a black hood. The person seems confused. They walk around, feeling everybody's pulses. Then, one by one, the figure carries everyone's bodies off screen. The sound of a car starting could be heard in the distance. After a few minutes, the person returns, having forgotten to take Dawn as well. The person roughly grabs Dawn and drags her off screen. The person returns to the screen one more time, picking up the camera. They look into the lens, and cover it. _

(Video ends)

"So... we were all knocked out. Then the meteor disappeared. Then we all glowed, and then someone found us, and took us back to our dorms?" asked May.

"Looks like it." said Ash. "That hooded person's got some attitude. Whoever they are, they really, _really _don't like Dawn. They literally just dragged her off the screen. They didn't even try to pick her up like they did everyone else."

"And they left me on the floor of the lobby!" added Dawn. "Just who is this person?! I hate them already!"

"Their face didn't stay on the screen long enough for us to tell who. All I could see was that they had blue eyes." said Barry.

"Well that could be anyone." said Ash. "We'll probably never find out who it was. There's too many possibilities."

"Of all the people this could have happened to... why us?" asked May exasperatedly. "And what was up with that meteor? It vanished!"

"Ali-"

"Holy shit, it's not fucking aliens, Barry!" growled Gary.

"So what do you think it was, Gary Motherfucking Oak?" snapped Barry, his sombrero falling off his head. He was sick and tired of everyone pushing off his alien theory. It made sense, but no one ever agreed with him on the grounds that it was _him_ saying it. "I'm asking _you_, someone who is majoring in _History_, to enlighten _me_, someone who is majoring in ASTRONOMY. Judging by the way you growled at me, there must be something I fucking missed! A freaking meteor with _tentacles_ came, attacked us, and gave us goddamn powers! How does that not scream 'ALIENS' to you?! Please, if you could be so kind, share with us what info you know that could lead me to believe that it could be anything else! Hmm? Nothing? I thought so!"

Silence. May and Dawn looked at Gary and Barry back and forth, expecting them to attack each other any minute. But that wouldn't have happened, because Barry was a pacifist, and Gary was speechless. Barry had just completely shut him down, right in front of everyone, including Dawn. He knew Barry was right, and deep down, he also believed it was aliens. He didn't know why he yelled at Barry, it seemed to have come out by itself. But the damage was done. He had just embarrassed himself.

"Hey now... there's no need to yell." said Ash lowly. " I know, there's a lot of questions that we have, and most of them will probably never be answered. We're all a little overwhelmed and aggravated. Let's all split up for now, and do our own things. I'm sure some of us have classes to go to soon..." Ash glanced down at his watch. "Me being one of them. I've got class in 15 minutes. I gotta go get my stuff."

"You mind if I stay in your room? Don't really feel like walking all the way back to Gramps' apartment." said Gary quietly.

"Sure, let's go." answered Ash, walking towards the door. "Bye everyone. Text me if anything else comes up. I won't be available til like, 6:30pm though, I have an exam right after class."

Ash and Gary walked out of the room, leaving only Barry, Dawn and May in the room.

"Yeah, I've gotta go too." said Dawn. "I have to study."

"No surprise there." muttered May. "You're always studying. But then again, I need to study too. Wanna be Study Buddies?"

"Okay!" said Dawn, excited by the term 'Study Buddies'. She then turned to Barry. "What are you gonna do, Barry?"

"I dunno. I don't have any classes today..." mumbled Barry quietly. He seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Wanna come with May and I?" asked Dawn hopefully.

"...No." said Barry, putting his sombrero back on his head. "I have Track practice later. I think I'm gonna go there now, jog a few miles before practice starts. I'll see you guys later tonight."

"Alright... bye." said Dawn, disappointed. She and May walked out, leaving only Barry in the room.

Barry stood from his computer chair and sighed. He walked over to his color-coordinated shoe closet and grabbed his running shoes. He took off his sombrero, and grabbed a pair of headphones. With all his running gear gathered, he walked out of his room, closing the door behind him. He placed his headphones on his ears, and played his music. The music was on low volume, but with the heightened senses, it felt like the volume was on the loudest setting. But he didn't care. He needed to vent out the anger.

"Gary's such an ass." mumbled Barry, jogging down the hall.

* * *

"Gary, you alright? You've been a little of an ass lately." asked Ash, unlocking his dorm room. He opened the door and gestured for Gary to enter.

"I don't know man... Life's just been really tough as of late." mumbled Gary tiredly, entering Ash's dorm. "I'm not doing a very good job at coping with it."

"Wanna talk about it?" asked Ash, closing the door.

"Don't you have a class to go to?"

"If it's to help a friend, I've got time."

Gary snorted. "That's the cheesiest thing I've ever heard you say."

"Do you want to talk or not?" asked Ash as he packed his books into his backpack.

"Yeah..." sighed Gary. "Have you ever felt like you just can't get a break? Like there's just one month where pile after pile of shit just falls onto your lap, and there's little to nothing you can do about it?"

"Yes." said Ash, recalling the month that May met Drew. Easily the worst month of his life.

"Well, I'm going through one of those. Gramps' health has been declining... even more. He's having another heart surgery tomorrow."

"Again?" asked Ash, his eyes widening.

"Yeah, this is the third one. The doctors say this one should solve the problem for good. They're going to install a pacemaker, and with it, his heartbeat should stay normal. That's great and all, but the real problem is the _money_. How are we going to pay for all 3 surgeries? My family can't even afford a dorm for me to live in, let alone 3 hospital bills. And as if _that _isn't bad enough, since my Grandpa's health has been declining, he's been working less hours than usual. It's getting harder and harder to pay the rent for our apartment, and that makes _me _feel terrible, because his rent almost doubled when I moved in. Sooner or later, I'll have to get a job. It's inevitable. But with what time? I'm already busy enough as is, and my grades aren't exactly ideal. If you've noticed, I've been drinking a lot more lately. Now you know why. I'm stressed out. I know, drinking is literally the worst possible way to deal with it, but... I don't know man, I'm a mess."

"Damn... I-"

"But wait, there's more." said Gary bitterly, mimicking Barry's voice. "To finish it all off, it seems like Dawn downright hates me nowadays. It seems like all her time and attention goes to _Barry_ now, and when her attention _is _on me, it's just to scold me or warn me. She hardly ever smiles at me anymore. Come to think of it, she smiles when she's with everyone else _but _me. She... she treats me like an unwanted, annoying little brother, and I know I'm not very open with my emotions, but I'll say it; It hurts."

"Gary," sighed Ash. Dawn had always been a touchy subject for the life-long friends. "have you ever thought that maybe Dawn's _not_ the girl for you?"

"Yes. I always try to pursue stuff with other girls, but in the end, I always end up gravitating back to her. Trust me, it annoys me just as much as it annoys you."

"Annoys me?"

"Yes. I know that you don't approve of my... umm... undying attraction to her." muttered Gary.

"It's not that I don't approve." said Ash, scratching the back of his head. "It's just that... I don't want to see you get hurt. We've been best-friends for over ten years, and I know that Dawn is... is just not right for you. She doesn't hate you, but the way I see it... she'll never have the same feelings for you that you have for her. She just doesn't like you like that. But she doesn't hate you either."

"So what do you think I should do, Ash the Wise?" asked Gary. "Suppress my feelings?"

"No. Just... just tell her how you feel. Maybe if you hear it coming from her mouth, you'll finally stop liking her. Trust me, I know how it feels to have the girl of your dreams be completely oblivious to your feelings. I also know what it's like to watch her blush and giggle over another guy. Just let it out, or you'll end up like me..."

"Gay?"

"What the- no!" stuttered Ash. "I meant that you'll turn into a boring, introvert! I'm not gay, I still like May!"

"You do?! Shit! Y'know, being your best friend and all, you'd think I would've know that..." mumbled Gary innocently. "And by the way, I wasn't joking. Rumor has it you're gay."

"Wh-what?!" asked Ash, shocked. "Why?!"

"I dunno, you _are_ pretty unresponsive to the advances of various girls in this college. Most people think you're not interested in women at all, because you ignore the flirting of some of the prettiest girls around." laughed Gary.

"Goddammit, everyone thought the same thing in high school too!" roared Ash. "I don't respond to other girls' flirting because I'm not interested in them! No wait, let me rephrase that. I don't respond to their flirts because I'm interested in May, not them! Fuck it, let them think what they want. I'm going to class."

Ash slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed towards the door. But before leaving, he turned to Gary one last time.

"And regarding your situation with your grandfather's rent and bills... if you want, I'll talk to my parents about helping you out financially. I don't like seeing you so dark and negative. It reminds me of myself. If you ever need any help, just tell me. We're bros, right?"

"Yeah. Bros til the end..." said Gary. "Thanks Ash. That means a lot to me... So, I guess I should start mentally preparing to tell Dawn my feelings, huh? I don't want to end up boring like you."

"Yes." said Ash, closing the door.

As soon as Ash left, Gary sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Easier said than done, my friend." he sighed. "Easier said than done..."

* * *

_"Goddammit, this is high school all over again!" _thought Ash angrily as he briskly walked through the halls. _"I would understand if someone thought BARRY was gay, I mean look at him; he color-coordinates his shoes and is lemon scented. But me?! Come on!"_

Ash continued his grumpy walk through the halls until he reached the elevator. He pressed the button to go downwards, but much to his irritation, the button to call the elevator was broken, which meant he had to take the stairs. His dorm was on the 9th floor.

"_It's like the world just WANTS me to be late to class_." thought Ash with a sigh.

He quickly made his way to the stairwell, and looked down. It was a long, long way down. He groaned and began his descent. In order to pass the time, he tried to think of things to occupy his mind. Eventually, his mind decided to think about how bad he felt for Gary. Gary had a tough life, one that made everyone else's look like heaven. When he was 7, his parents had gone through a messy divorce, leaving his already broken family even more broken. With his dad out of the house, Gary's family slumped economically, barely getting by. But through all the things he was forced to deal with at home, he always wore a bright smile at school. Things stayed like that til they were in high school, when they began to apply for college. Unable to afford it, there was a high chance Gary wasn't going to go to college at all, but luckily, he was able to gain both admission and financial aid in Kanto Coast University. In order to stay with their friend, Ash, Dawn, May and Barry decided to apply there, and much to their satisfaction, they were admitted. But though they were given financial aid, Gary's family still couldn't afford a dorm for him, so he had to live with his grandfather, Professor Samuel Oak, who coincidentally lived close to the school. Through all of that, Gary had been able to stay happy, and optimistic.

_"But now it's finally become too much for him... Honestly I'm surprised he was able to stay happy so long with a life like that... I can't let him make any bad decisions... It's my job as his friend... No, it's my job as his BEST friend, to help him as much as I can... I've got to be there fo-"_

Ash's thought abruptly ended, his newly heightened hearing picking up some noises in a nearby hallway. He looked at the closest sign, and saw that he was on the 8th floor.

_"Only the 8th?! How slow have I been walking?!" _thought Ash, tilting his head in disbelief.

But then he heard the noises again, and quickly entered the 8th floor, planning on investigating. The closer he got to the source, the more he knew what it was. It was around the corner of the hall, so he couldn't see it, but he knew. But just to make sure, he peeped around the corner, and sure enough, his assumption was correct. There were four big, tough looking guys surrounding a smaller, weaker looking one. The guy being surrounded had circular glasses and blonde hair. He seemed to be shaking in fear, but he had a brave face on.

The biggest and tallest of the guys surrounding the nerd spoke up.

"I'll say it again, punk." growled the big guy, grabbing the nerd by the shirt. "You _will _do our Calculus projects. Got it?"

"N-no Chuck, I won't! I'm not gonna let you idiots use me like you do all the other smart kids in this university. If you're not smart enough to do your homework, then maybe you don't belong here! Now p-put me down!" spat the nerd.

"You're a smart kid Clemont, but you just gave me the dumbest answer possible." replied Chuck, punching Clemont in the face.

"Agh!" cried Clemont, his nose bleeding. From the corner of his eye, he saw someone watching everything. He made eye contact with said person, his eyes pleading for help. "You! Please, help me!"

Ash's eyes widened, realizing that Clemont was talking to him. He sighed. _"I'll never get to class..."_

Ash reluctantly walked out from his hiding spot, and all four of the bullies immediately looked at him. The leader of the bullies, Chuck, laughed loudly. He looked at Clemont as if he had just told an absolutely superb joke. Ash raised an eyebrow.

"_This _is who you want to save you?" chuckled Chuck. "Don't you know who that is? That's that gay kid, Ash Ketchum. What do you expect _him_ to do to _us_?"

Let's just say that Chuck had sealed his fate with that second to last sentence. Ash's eyes narrowed, one eye twitching.

"Beat the shit out of you." he growled, cracking his knuckles. "_All_ of you."

"_You're_ gonna beat the shit out of _us_? Hah!" exclaimed one of the other guys. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Come at me, bro." taunted Ash.

The guy ran towards Ash, his fast drawn back. Ash waited for him, not even taking a battle stance or bracing himself. The guy thrust his fist forward, aiming for Ash's face. Ash effortlessly dodged, stomped on the guy's foot, and delivered a powerful uppercut to the guy's chin, knocking him backwards. Ash smirked. He had already known how to fight, but the new reflexes were definitely a plus. The guy tried to get up, planning on attacking Ash again, but Ash punched him back down before he could get up, knocking him out. A few gasps were heard. Ash looked at the rest of the guys with a dark grin.

"Who's next? How about you, the chubby one?" asked Ash, pointing to Chuck.

"Oh, you think you're cool because you punched out Todd? Well joke's on you, Todd has Narcolepsy! Haha! HA! So we'll just tell everyone he had a sleep-attack!" declared Chuck, a victorious smile on his face. The rest of the bullies nodded, agreeing with their overweight leader. Chuck then released his grip on Clemont's shirt, giving his full attention to Ash. "Dave, Chris, let's get him. Nobody calls me chubby and gets away with it!"

The rest of the guys charged towards Ash, outnumbering him 3 to 1. Chuck went in first, trying to tackle Ash to the ground. Ash bent backwards Matrix-style, which lead to Chuck leaping over him instead of tackling him. He landed on the floor, behind Ash, face first.

The second Chuck was out of the picture, Ash gripped his backpack. There was another guy running straight towards him, and he knew exactly how to hit him. From his Matrix pose, Ash quickly and forcefully stood back up, swinging his heavy backpack forward with tons of momentum as he did it. As soon as he was standing normally, his backpack smashed the guy on the head, sending him to the floor. The blow knocked the guy unconscious, a trail of drool seeping from his mouth.

"_Damn_, you guys are idiots." commented Ash as the third and final guy, Dave, charged towards him.

"Oh yeah?!" growled Chuck from behind Ash, having recovered from his failed attempt to tackle the raven-haired student. Chuck charged towards Ash from behind. Ash now had a guy charging towards him from the front and the from the back.

"Yeah." answered Ash, stepping out of the way. "You are."

With Ash no longer in his path, Chuck ended up running straight into Dave, their heads colliding. They both fell to the floor, dizzy and lightheaded. Ash slung his backpack over his shoulder and knelt beside Chuck, grabbing him by the shirt.

"Now you listen here, and you listen _well__." _started Ash. Little did he know, May started off the exact same way when she grabbed Barry's shirt earlier in the day. "I, Ash Ketchum, who lives in dorm 912 on the 9th floor just in case you want a rematch, am not gay. I don't have a problem with gay people, but I am not of that lifestyle, nor will I ever be. Now do me a solid; spread the word, _chubby._"

With his message across, Ash punched Chuck, knocking him out. With all the bullies knocked down, Ash stood up, stretched his arms out, and walked away, the job done. Clemont, who had watched the whole fight with his mouth agape, watched Ash walk away, shocked.

"Um, th-thank you! Thank you very much!" he called.

Ash simply raised his hand up, giving Clemont a thumbs up. He then walked around the corner, headed back towards the stairs. On his way to the stairwell, he passed the elevator. He paused.

_"Wait a minute... Why can't I just take the elevator from here? This button isn't broken like the one on my floor..."_

He pressed the button, and the elevator door opened. He face-palmed and walked in, slightly ashamed of how stupid he had been.

_"So this is what if feels like to be Dawn..."_ he thought, referencing Dawn's occasional lack of common sense. _"I can't believe I was about to take the stairs all the way down..."_

He pressed the button that would take him to the first floor of the building. He looked at his watch. 12:11pm. Class had started 11 minutes ago. He sighed.

_"Professor Rowan is going to kill me... oh well, I'm late for a good reason. I just saved a kid from being beaten to a pulp... Hmmm... saving that kid actually felt pretty good... I felt like a hero or something." _thought Ash with a half-smile. It was a good feeling, a feeling he didn't feel very often. _"Just another reason why these powers aren't all that bad..."_

* * *

"Dawn. I'm begging you. Can we please stop studying?" begged May.

May was face down on the floor, her brain barely able to function. She had studied to the point that her brain cells had gone on strike, demanding better treatment. She had never studied with Dawn before, and she decided then and there that she'd never, _ever_ do it again. Dawn was an unstoppable machine when it came to studying. In all the time they had studied, she hadn't stopped to eat anything, get a drink of water, or even use the bathroom. May glanced up at Dawn, who was still reading her textbook intensely, as if it were some holy scripture that was of the utmost importance to read. One hand was holding the book open, while the other was twiddling around with a pen.

"Daaawnnn pleaassseeee..."

When May had spoken up for the 2nd time, Dawn paused everything, seeming to have broken out of her trance.

"Just one more chapter!" replied Dawn, turning to May.

"How many pages are in the next chapter?" asked May quietly.

"Not that much! Only 81."

"Nooooooo..." sobbed May. "81?! There's no way you're reading all that! Do you even know what time it is?!"

"Yup," said Dawn, pulling her phone out of thin air. "7:26pm."

"Dawn, we've been studying for over 7 hours..." whimpered May. "My brain can't do anymore learning today..."

"Fine, how about we go somewhere that's entertaining for you? I'll follow you there, but I'll be reading my textbook the whole time. That way, both of us are happy. I'm sorry, but I just find Physics to be such a fascinating subject. I can never stop reading it once I've started. Truly spectacular."

"Ugh, this is why Ash calls you a nerd. Because you _are_ one."

"Oh yeah, Ash!" said Dawn with a smile. "He should be out of class by now. Why don't we go visit him?"

"No." answered May nonchalantly. "He's probably exhausted from his exam. We'll talk to him tomorrow morning."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I doubt you'd want to go there just to watch me flirt with him anyway. Hmmm... or maybe you have an ulterior motive... perhaps you want to see Gary Motherfucking Oak?"

"Oh shut up May, you know I don't like Gary like that... he's like a son to me."

"O.O...I'm sorry, _what?_" asked May, her eyes widening. She quickly sat up. "You see him as your... _son_? My lord, you just friend-zoned him to the max with that one phrase... wow... really? Your _son?_"

"What?" asked Dawn innocently.

"Usually the term 'He's like a brother to me' is what's associated with the friend-zone. But you've just taken it to another level and called him your _son._ Are you sure that you feel that way? That's not very, um, normal... You comparing your friend to your own offspring... is kiiiiiiiind of fucked up if you really think about it."

"Well he's more of a son to me because I've been the one looking out for him all these years. If left with everyone else, he'd probably be dead right now, or worse. His family... well, his family isn't doing that great of a job caring for him, so I guess I've subconsciously taken him under my motherly wing... I'm always the one to warn him before he does something stupid, and overall, it'd feel morally wrong if I dated him."

"You see him as your _son... _you're weird, Dawn."

"Yeah, I know... I'm starting to think I have some issues." sighed Dawn, picking up her textbook. "Let's just get out of here."

"To where? We're not going to Ash's room."

"Hmm... How about Barry's room?" asked Dawn a hint of childish excitement in her voice.

"Why? So I can sit there and watch you two flirt? Sounds like a blast." answered May, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun." said Dawn, grabbing May's hand. "His dorm smells like lemony goodness."

"That it does... Hey, you think he made it like that because he's blonde? Y'know, yellow hair, so he smells like a yellow fruit?"

"Let's ask him!" said Dawn, dragging May out of the dorm.

...

_30 minutes later..._

May and Dawn walked towards Barry's dorm, but the door opened before they got to it. Barry stepped out of his dorm, looking traumatized. He looked around, and spotted May and Dawn down the hall. He slowly walked towards them, his eyes wide. May and Dawn smiled, but frowned when they saw his facial expression. When he finally reached the two girls, he looked into their eyes.

"May, Dawn, I don't want these powers anymore." he said monotonously.

"Hey, your eyes aren't bloodshot anymore!" exclaimed May. She looked at Dawn, and noticed that Dawn's were back to normal as well. She assumed hers were fine too. "Whatever. So, do you and your room smell like lemons because-"

"Barry, are you okay?" asked Dawn, noticing his distraught behavior. "You seem... horrified."

"I don't want these powers anymore." he repeated, his voice cracking.

"Why?" asked both girls.

"Because..." half-sobbed Barry. "I've just discovered that we're going to spend the rest of our lives... awake."

* * *

**Oh my, what could Barry mean by that? Find out next chapter!  
**

**I've never done this before, but I'm curious. I'd like to know what powers you, my awesome readers, think the characters will gain. Of course, I already know what powers they'll have, but who knows? Someone might have an idea even better than mine. And it that's the case, I'd gladly change it. Adios,  
**

**~DarkSlash9**


	3. Night Terrors

**Hey. So, here's Chapter 3. To that percentage of readers that like to take every action by a character into consideration, you should do so in this chapter. There are plenty of hidden meanings in this chapter that are disguised as trivial little things that many readers wouldn't think of. There's even some foreshadowing :D.  
**

**Also... my updates may be slowing down a little bit with school starting. Also, I'm taking classes to learn how to drive a car, so that's gonna take some time as well. But don't worry, I'll write as much as I can, when I can.  
**

**Here's the Q&A.**

GoldenGear6

Will this be a Gary/Dawn pairing cause u like that for some reason

**Answer: While I do love Cavaliershipping, I can't promise anything.  
**

AmericanBoy2016

I feel like the story is gunna lead into the idea that power corrupts, will it?

**Answer: This story has more than one theme, but yeah, that's definitely one of them.**

Hahaslyman2341

Will the fights (if there are any more) in this story be awesome like the one between Ash and the bullys?

**Answer: The fights are going to be better than the one in chapter 2. Actually, there's another one in this chapter. Tell me how you like it.  
**

**Okay, here's Chapter 3.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own pokemon.**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Night Terrors

* * *

_"What?" _asked May, her voice low. "What do you mean?"

"We. Cannot. Sleep." said Barry, dramatically pausing between each word. His voice was shaky and unstable. "I've been trying for the past 3 hours. I've tried everything; sleeping pills, Chamomile Tea, lullabies... _nothing_ is working. This is a nightmare, except it's not, because in order to access a nightmare, I'd have to be asleep, which I am not!"

"M-maybe you're just n-not t-tired?" asked May, denial setting in. "Th-that could be it."

"That's exactly it, May." said Dawn, breaking her silence. "I thought this might happen. Since we don't get tired after physical activity, it would only make sense that we don't get tired at all, period. By the way, I spent the first 3 hours of our studying thinking of this, May. I've come up with a reasonable and highly probable theory for what exactly that meteor did to our bodies. It seemed to have-"

"Hold off on your explanation Dawn, you should say it when all of us are together. We'll go to Ash's room. He should be back from his exam, and Gary should still be in there." interrupted Barry, his voice regaining some stability. He then pointed to May, who was staring off into the distance. "But before we go, she needs some help. She looks like she's going to collapse any minute."

"No... sleep... ever..." moaned May, absolutely horrified. "Awake... for eternity... woe is me..."

"Frankly, I don't see it as that big of a problem." beamed Dawn. "It's actually quite beneficial if you really think about it! More time to study! This is actually a blessing!"

"No Dawn! No goddamn studying!" growled May, her eyes wide. "This is serious! No sleep; What are we going to be doing awake every night?! If you even think of the word 'studying' again, I will not hesitate to burn all your textbooks, and blow the ashes into an even bigger fire!"

"You wouldn't!" gasped Dawn, taking a step back.

"Try me." said May in a steely voice.

"Let's just go to Ash's room..." sighed Barry, grabbing Dawn's hand. Dawn was surprised that he did, and the surprise showed in her face. Barry smiled weakly, still shaken by his discovery. "Come on Dawn, May can't hurt you as long as I'm here to protect you."

"Oh, um, okay." giggled Dawn, her cheeks taking on a vivid tint of crimson. May snorted.

"Hmph! If I really wanted to attack you Dawn, nothing would be able to protect you. _Especially_ not _this_ softy over here." growled the brunette, pointing a finger at Barry. "He's a wimp!"

"Yeah well he's the bravest wimp around." replied Dawn with a smile.

"Yeah, he's brave alright. He read my diary this morning." grumbled May, her arms folded.

"Really?!" asked Dawn.

"HAHAHA, yeah I did!" laughed Barry loudly. "Oh gosh, you should have been there, Dawn. The first half of the thing was just Drew, Drew, Drew! I swear it was like a giant shrine to Drew in book format. It was absolutely hilarious."

Barry immediately regretted what he had said. As soon as he had finished speaking, he remembered May's terrifying threat. The one regarding her martial arts. His orange eyes darted to the brunette, and sure enough, she was growling like a rabid dog. Without a second thought, Barry let go of Dawn's hand and dashed down the hall, his life flashing before his eyes. May pursued, screaming tons of violent, horrifying, graphic, and brutal descriptions of what she planned on doing to him. Dawn followed the two, an amused smile on her face.

* * *

"Hey Ash, you hear that? It sounds like someone is sprinting towards this room." asked Gary, looking towards the door of Ash's room.

"Now that you mention it... I do." muttered Ash. "I'm sensing that it's more than one person too."

"Should we do something?" asked Gary.

Ash pondered for a second, and then shook his head. "Nah, we're busy right now."

"Dude, we can pause the game. It's just Mortal Kombat."

"But I don't _want _ to pause the game." retorted Ash monotonously. "Kicking your cheap Raiden-using ass is far more important."

"Really? I'm cheap because I use Raiden? You're using Noob Saibot! He's the cheapest character in the whole ga-"

"Shh..." said Ash, pausing the game. Gary rolled his eyes.

"I thought you didn't want to pause the ga-"

"I change my mind a lot." replied the raven-haired student, standing up.

Gary sighed, put down his controller, and stood up as well. The sound their advanced hearing had heard before was even more audible, their ears picking up not only footsteps, but screams, yells, and growls. This situation would have bothered them if they hadn't recognized the owners of these voices. Gary snorted, and Ash rolled his eyes. They walked to the door, and as Ash reached for the handle, several rushed knocks were heard from the other side.

"Let me in!" cried a voice, the same one that was screaming moments earlier.

"What's the magic word?" asked Ash.

"Please! Please let me in!"

"K." answered Ash, opening the door.

At first only Barry was in the doorway. Ash's face remained straight, while Gary's frowned. Both their faces changed to ones of surprise when a growling May appeared out of nowhere, tackling a terrified Barry onto the hallway floor less than 2 seconds after Ash had opened the door. Ash and Gary watched silently as May wrestled Barry. The blonde teen tried to get her off of him, but it was a futile effort. In less than 10 seconds, she had Barry pinned.

"May! Please go easy on him!" called Dawn, walking towards the scene.

"May, no mercy." whispered Gary with a devilish grin.

"NO MERCY!" roared May, raising her fist to punch Barry's face. "NO MERCY FOR THOSE WHO READ MY DIARY!"

Barry's eyes darted to everyone surrounding him, hoping someone would help him. Dawn was too far away to help, and even if she was close, Dawn wasn't strong enough to stop May. Gary didn't seem to have any intention of helping. In fact, he had a small smile on his face. And finally there was Ash, who, as usual, had a straight, unreadable face on. Barry closed his eyes, realizing that there was no way of avoiding his terrible fate.

He waited, and after 3 seconds of waiting for the pain, he opened his eyes. Much to his surprise, May hadn't punched him, because someone had grabbed her fist before she could. May looked up at the person angrily, but her expression softened significantly when she saw who it was.

"I'm gonna have to stop you. I don't want Barry's blood splattered near my dorm." sighed Ash, his hand still holding May's back. "Feel free to smash his face into a wall later though."

_"Oh thank God." _thought Barry. _"I've been saved."_

_"Ash is so... cool." _thought Dawn in admiration.

_"Dammit Ash, you ruin all the fun." _thought Gary with a sigh.

_"He's touching me? He's touching me." _thought May, blush forming on her cheeks.

"So, are you going to get off of him or not?" asked Ash with a half-smile.

"Oh um, yeah fine." mumbled May, reluctantly removing herself from Barry. But before removing herself completely, she gave Barry one last murderous glance, silently warning him to stay in line. Barry gulped, his orange eyes wide in fear.

"Soooo... what brings all of you here?" asked Gary, leaning against Ash's door.

"We've discovered some great news." beamed Dawn. The bluenette looked at May, who glared at her. Dawn nervously laughed. "Heheh, I mean we've discovered some bad news. Not great news."

"What's the news?" asked Gary, allowing Dawn, May and Barry to enter Ash's dorm.

"Everyone take a seat first, and then I'll explain my theory." ordered Dawn, sitting on Ash's studying chair.

Gary and Barry sat on the floor, but not next to each other. In fact, they sat on opposite ends of the room, wanting to be as far away from each other as possible. Ash sat on his bed, his back resting against the wall. May looked around, trying to think of where to sit. Dawn had taken the one and only chair in the room, and unlike Gary and Barry, May didn't see the floor as a comfortable place to sit. The only spot left was Ash's bed. Even with Ash sitting on it, there was more than enough space for her as well. She walked over and took a seat next to Ash, doing her best not to sigh in content. His bed had the same scent as him. It smelled like cinnamon. She loved the smell, but she never knew how or why he always smelled like it.

"Anyone want some gum?" asked Ash, pulling out some cinnamon flavored gum.

Barry raised his hand, and Ash tossed a piece to him from across the room. Barry caught it with ease. Dawn gasped.

"That was a really good catch Barry. How did you do that?" she asked in awe.

Barry looked at her as if she were crazy. "Umm, the powers? You know, the ones you were about to tell us your theory about?"

"Oh yeah." laughed Dawn, facepalming. Everyone stared at her in disbelief. She truly was a mind-boggling combination of intelligent and air-headed. "Anyway, yes, after spending a considerable amount of time thinking about the topic, I have put together a theory explaining what is happening to our bodies. We are all aware that we can no longer become tired, correct?"

Everyone nodded.

"And we are all aware that we are no longer capable of sleeping, right?"

Barry and May sadly nodded their heads, while Ash and Gary's eyes widened.

"Really?" asked Ash, his voice remaining calm. "Wow."

"What do you mean 'Really, wow'?! This is a big deal!" roared Gary. "Are you serious? No sleep?!"

"Yes, no sleep. And please try to keep your voice down Gary." scolded Dawn. "So yes, we cannot sleep. From what we have discovered, I believe that the incident with the meteor has somehow raised the efficiency of our bodies, giving us extraordinary capabilities."

"Raised the efficiency?" asked May.

"Yes. More specifically, the efficiency of our cells. The cells that build our sensory organs seem to have drastically improved in functionality. Then there's the fact that we don't get physically tired. The only way I see that as possible is if our cells have found a way to halt all production of the lactic acid that is usually formed from anaerobic and sometimes aerobic respiration. The fact that our muscles don't get tired tied with the other fact that our breathing speed doesn't increase could only mean that our cells aren't performing respiration at all. This is backed by a simple experiment I performed. I held my breath, and never did I feel the urge to breathe. Go ahead everyone, try it."

Gary, Ash, Barry and May held their breath, and waited. Much to their surprise, they didn't feel the need to breathe at all. It was as if their bodies lost all dependence on oxygen. After over 5 minutes of holding their breath, they all stopped, their eyes wide.

"Wow... so what does this mean?" asked Barry.

"I think it means that our bodies of become self-sufficient, and self-energizing. We no longer rely on any outside compound or chemical to keep us alive. Breathing is useless now. We all still do it out of habit, not out of necessity." concluded Dawn.

"But I ate food this morning." said Ash, raising his hand.

"But were you _hungry _when you ate it?" asked Dawn.

Ash shook his head, indicating that he wasn't hungry when he ate.

"Exactly. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but none of us have used the bathroom today either. That just further backs the theory that we're running on some kind of everlasting energy source within our cells, one that doesn't produce a waste. And then there's the topic of sleep. Since we run on an everlasting source of energy, we don't need to fall into unconsciousness to recharge."

"I see..." mumbled Gary, nodding his head slowly. "So, what name do you have for our condition, Professor Dawn?"

"Well, it's not really a condition. It's more of a mutation. In all truthfulness, I wouldn't classify us as humans anymore. But I've come up with a simple word that can probably accommodate for all the changes: Divinus."

"Divinus? What's that mean?" asked May.

"It's a Latin word. It has multiple translations, but one of them is Superhuman."

"So why not call it Superhuman then?" asked Barry.

"Well, everything sounds cooler in Latin, and Latin is often used in the fields of medicine and science, so it felt right." explained Dawn.

"Hmmmm... Divinus... that's a nice name." commented Barry.

"It sounds kinda lame to me." replied May.

"Well lame or not, that's what it's going to be called." said Ash, standing up. He walked over to his study table and grabbed a notebook, opening it to a clean page. "Thank you Dawn for your great theory. With it, you've given us some sense of clarity as to what exactly is happening to us. Now, I'd like to give us some sense of, well, _sense. _I think it would be best if we made a set of rules for ourselves. From now on, our lives really won't be the same. We need to set some standards for ourselves, ones that are made for people like us."

Many mumbles were heard from the 4 other people in the room, all of them agreeing with Ash.

"So, anyone got any rules in mind?" asked Ash.

"No abuse of our powers." said Dawn, watching Gary out of the corner of her eye. "We shouldn't use our abilities to get away with bad things."

Everyone nodded, and Ash wrote the rule down in his notebook.

"Do not reveal our powers to outsiders." added Barry. "We have to keep our abilities a secret. There's no telling what kinds of drama and chaos could happen if people were to learn that we're mutants."

Everyone nodded, and Ash wrote that rule under Dawn's.

"Group meetings at the end of every week." said May, looking around. "We all need to stick to each other more than ever now. We all hang out, but all 5 of us aren't assembled like this that often. We need to assemble at least once a week to discuss any possible developments."

Everyone nodded, and Ash wrote the rule down. Ash then cleared his throat.

"As stronger beings, we should always lend a helping hand when someone needs it." he said. Everyone raised an eyebrow. "What? If someone is in trouble, we should do our best to help them."

Everyone nodded, and Ash gladly wrote the rule in the book.

The only person who hadn't contributed to the list was Gary, and judging by the look on his face, he didn't plan on it. Everyone looked at him, and he simply looked right back, confused if anything.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"You're not going to contribute?" asked Barry.

"I would, but you guys took all the good ones. I can't think of anything." replied Gary, shrugging his shoulders.

"Okay then." said Ash, ripping the page out of his notebook. "These are our rules for now. So, where should our weekly group meetings be held? Dawn's dorm?"

"No." answered Dawn sharply. "You know I dislike more than two people in my room at a time. It stresses me."

"This is true." replied Ash. "How about Barry's room?"

"Nahhh..." sighed Barry. "The Student Adviser on my floor is an ass. If he sees you guys coming every week, he'll try to investigate stuff."

"Makes sense. May, what about your room?" asked Ash.

"Sure." said May.

"No." said Dawn, Gary, and Barry.

"Why not?!" asked May, slightly offended.

"Too much red. It's unsettling." replied Dawn. Gary and Barry nodded in concurrence.

Ash rolled his eyes. "Fine. How about Gary's apar-"

"Really man?" asked Gary. "You guys are going to drive to my apartment every week?"

Ash groaned. "Alright fine. Since all of you have some sort of excuse, it seems my dorm is the only one fit for the job. We'll meet here every Saturday night to discuss anything regarding our abilities. Understood?"

Everyone nodded.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish kicking Gary's ass in Mortal Kombat. Feel free to stick around and watch." said Ash seriously as he and Gary grabbed their controllers, resuming their battle.

"I'd love to stick around, but I have some studying to do..." said Dawn, walking towards the door. An excited smile spread across her pretty face. "Physics textbook, here I come!"

As everyone else said goodbye to Dawn, Barry silently watched her exit the room. Once she left, he stood and followed her out the door, not a word coming from his mouth. May was the only one who noticed, as Ash and Gary were too absorbed in their game to pay anything else any mind. She simply shrugged and let him leave, not seeing a reason to stop him.

With nothing else to do, May decided to watch Ash and Gary play their video games. She remained on Ash's bed. His room was cooler than she preferred, and she found herself under Ash's blankets after a few seconds. She chose not to speak, not wanting to break the concentration of her two male friends. Finally, after a few minutes, Ash dropped his controller grumpily. At the same time, Gary pumped his fist into the air, a victorious grin on his face.

"I won, bitch." stated Gary. "Gary Motherfucking Oak, 1. Ass Ketchup, 0. Just face it dude, you can never beat me at anything. Except bowling."

"You cheap, cheating bastard..." grumbled Ash, turning towards his bed. He was surprised to see May on it, completely wrapped in _his _blanket. "Oh, May. I thought you left."

"Nope. I'm still a little angry at Barry, and I don't want to study with Dawn, so I thought it'd be best if I stayed with you guys." answered May with a smile.

"Oh, err, cool." replied Ash. "Well, I'm about to drive Gary over to his apartment. Do you wanna come with us?"

''Okay!" answered May a little too quickly. She blushed and looked in a different direction. "I mean, yeah, sure."

"Hey, are you cold or something?" asked Ash, standing up.

"Not really."

"So why have you formed a cocoon of blankets around yourself?" asked Gary, raising an eyebrow.

"Alright, I'm cold." answered May.

"Well you should have just said so." said Ash, walking over to his closet. He pulled out a sweatshirt and tossed it to May. "Here, put this on. It's red, so you'll probably like it."

May caught the sweatshirt and examined it. It was red, and it smelled like cinnamon. She reached into the pocket, and sure enough, there was a pack of cinnamon flavored gum inside of it. She looked up at Ash, a small blush on her face. As soon as her sapphire eyes locked with his brown ones, she nervously smiled and put on the sweatshirt. As soon as it was on, her eyes widened. It was too big. She already knew Ash was a solid 6 inches taller than her, but she still didn't expect the sweatshirt to completely cover her hands and fall below her shorts. It was too big, but it was also comfortable. She looked back at Ash, who was staring at her blankly. May couldn't see it, but his tan cheeks had taken on a red hue.

"Um, thanks." she said quietly.

"Huh?" asked Ash, snapping out of his daze. "What?"

"She thanked you, Mr. Ketchup." answered Gary.

"Oh." said Ash, turning to May. "No problem. Now let's get out of here."

* * *

Barry quietly followed Dawn, trying his best not to get caught. He had followed her all the way to her dorm building, keeping her in his sights. He had a mission, and he wanted to put it into action. He had been thinking of ways to have alone time with Dawn, and he had come up with the perfect way to make a move on her, or at least take part in some romantic activity. He slowly and quietly followed her up the staircase of her building, making sure to keep a good distance away to avoid being caught. He had done well, until Dawn arrived at her dorm. Barry watched from around the corner, waiting for her to open the door. She stuck the key in the keyhole, but before turning it, she paused.

"Hey Barry! Feel free to come in!" called Dawn, a friendly smile on her face. Barry's jaw dropped.

"What?! How did you know I followed you?!" exclaimed the blonde, his voice cracking a bit.

"You followed me?" asked Dawn, confused. "I just noticed you now, I saw you peeping from around the corner. I didn't know you followed me the whole way..."

"Well yeah, I followed ya." answered Barry, walking up to Dawn. "I've come to stop you."

"Stop me from what?"

"Studying."

"Now why would you do that?" asked Dawn, her hands on her hips. "I like studying."

"No you don't." said Barry, entering Dawn's dorm. "You think you do. I've come to show you that there are other things in life worth doing besides studying."

"Something better than studying?" asked Dawn skeptically, closing her door. "Like what?"

"Having fun." said Barry with a grin. "We are going to watch a movie."

"A movie? Hm, I guess that sounds interesting. I don't watch movies very often, and when I do, they're usually documentaries. What movie do you want to watch?"

"Demonic Zombie Blood-Bath Wars 7: Steve's Revenge!" beamed Barry, the most innocent of smiles on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small memory drive, the type that plugs into a computer's USB port.

"Demonic Zombie Blood-Bath Wars 7: Steve's Revenge... that sounds terrifying." replied Dawn uncomfortably. "Especially for me, someone who's never seen a horror movie."

"I know, it's gonna be awesome." said Barry, looking around. "Where's your laptop?"

"Under my bed." said Dawn, clearing the papers off her desk.

"I'll get it." asked Barry, walking towards Dawn's bed.

"Hmmm..." hummed Dawn, thoughts beginning to brew in her head. She walked over to Barry, a mischievous smile on her face. "No, you're _my_ visitor. You shouldn't be doing that. I'll get it myself."

"Okay...?"

Dawn slowly fell to her knees, and bent over. On all fours, she stuck her head and one arm under the bed, her back purposely arched in a way that specifically showed off her lower assets. She reached for her laptop, the blue-haired scholar smiling with even more mischievous intent than before. While her intelligence did have a habit of abandoning her at times, Dawn was in no way a clueless girl. She was fully aware of the many stares that she received from countless boys, and from said stares, she could only deduce that the lower curves of her body were nothing to scoff at. She remained in that position for a few seconds. She had already grabbed her laptop, but decided to wait a little longer, increasing the chances of Barry noticing her curves.

Barry noticed, but only after he began to grow impatient. He had spent most of the time admiring how well-organized Dawn's room was. He loved it. Her kitchen was sparkling clean; sexy. Her collection of nail-polish was color-coordinated; turn-on. Her textbooks were alphabetized; _major_ turn-on. But after about 30 seconds of waiting, he looked down at Dawn, immediately noticing her above-average lower half; the biggest turn-on of them all. But he couldn't tell if she was doing it on purpose or not.

_"Knowing Dawn, this could either be part of some master plan, or she could have absolutely no idea that she's flaunting her ass to me... Oh geez... I think my head might spontaneously combust..."  
_

He reluctantly looked away, thinking it rude to stare for too long. He cleared his throat, and Dawn took that as her cue. She removed her head from under the bed, and pulled the laptop out. She quickly stood up and faced Barry with an innocent, I'm-just-a-cute-little-girl smile on her face. She noticed how flustered Barry was, and could even see some red on his cheeks. Mission accomplished.

"Okay, let's watch the movie!" said Dawn cheerfully. "What was it again? Demonic Zombie Blood-Bath Wars 7?"

"Y-yeah..." said Barry as he grabbed the laptop from Dawn. "So... where do we sit?"

Instead of answering, Dawn got into her bed, her back resting against the headboard. Once settled, she patted the space next to her, signalling for Barry to sit beside her. She pulled the blanket over her legs and smiled.

"Right here." she said.

"You want me to sit beside you... on your bed, half under the covers?" asked Barry. He was excited to sit that way, but was finding it hard to believe that things were going so smoothly. He thought he'd have to do some flirting before Dawn would be so... well, inviting. "You sure?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" asked Dawn. "We've known each other for like, 5 years. What's wrong with sitting together?"

"Nothing I guess..." said Barry, getting onto the bed. He sat beside Dawn and put his legs under the covers. He then placed the laptop perfectly centered on their laps, one half of it resting on Dawn's right leg, the other on Barry's left. After turning the laptop on, Barry plugged his memory drive in, and the file for the movie came up. He opened it. After a few seconds, the menu for the movie came up. He looked at Dawn with a smirk. "Are you ready?"

"Yup." answered Dawn, smiling back. "I'm ready."

Barry nodded and clicked "Play".

* * *

"Dude, you blew it." said Ash, his eyes fixed on the road ahead. "You could have done it tonight."

"How?" asked Gary incredulously. "We just decided on it a couple hours ago!"

"But still, you should have just gotten it out of the way..." sighed Ash, stopping the car at a red light. "The longer you take to do it, the more time you'll have to think about bad potential scenarios, which will lead to you never doing it at all. I did what you're doing right now; I waited. Don't wait."

"I guess you're right... I should do it as soon as possible..." said Gary quietly.

"Can you guys tell me what you're talking about? Because I'm 100% lost right now." interrupted May, who was in the back seat of Ash's car.

"Nothing important." answered both Ash and Gary immediately.

"Well it sounds like something important to me." replied May. "Come on, just tell me. I'm good at keeping secrets."

"Do you really want to know?" asked Gary.

"Yes." answered May, nodding her head.

"And you promise you won't tell anyone?" asked Gary.

"Promise." said May.

Gary looked at May for a few more seconds before closing his eyes. "*sigh*, we're talking about me confessing my feelings to Dawn."

May blinked twice. "Why would you do that?"

"Because," answered Ash, his eyes still on the road. "It's the best choice."

"How is that the best choice?" asked May.

"Because, it's obvious that Dawn has the hots for Barry, and vice-versa. I hate to admit it, but there's little to no chance of Gary ending up with her. So, it's best that he let's his feelings be known, for multiple reasons. The first one being that he won't have to suffer that much, because he'd have already gotten it off his chest. It's much easier to move on when your feelings aren't bottled up deep inside. Another reason is that Dawn will know not to be too lovey dovey with Barry when around Gary, because she'll be aware of how it makes him feel. Third, if he keeps it bottled in and doesn't get over it, like I did, then-"

"What do you mean 'like I did'? You've been in Gary's situation before?" asked May, blissfully unaware of the extreme irony her question had injected into the air. Gary facepalmed, while Ash gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, a sigh escaping his mouth.

"Yeah." said Ash, his voice a little dry. "But that's not the point right now. The point is that Gary should have told her tonight, but he didn't. He's gotta do it soon..."

"Just give me a week, and I'll get it done." said Gary looking out the window. He noticed that Ash had stopped the car. They had arrived at Gary's apartment building. Gary opened the door and stepped out of the car. "Thanks for the ride, bro. Seeya around."

Gary stuck his hand into the car, and Ash met it halfway with his own hand. They performed their secret handshake, one filled with gestures and hand movements so secret they could not be described. May tried to watch, but found the movements too quick to memorize.

"Later, Gary." said Ash. May waved.

"Bye guys." answered Gary, closing the door.

He walked away from the car, and after a few seconds, Ash drove away. Gary sighed. Before entering his building, he sat on the front steps, thinking over what he and Ash had talked about. Ash was right; he _did_ need to tell Dawn soon, and he _did_ miss a chance to do it earlier. He knew he had to do it, but a small part of him didn't want to, still holding on to the irrational hope that one day Dawn would return his feelings. He shook his head, realizing that that would never happen. He had to tell her. With his mind truly made up, he stood.

_"This sucks..." _he thought as he pulled the keys to his apartment building out of his pocket.

* * *

There had been silence in Ash's car ever since Gary had left. Ash focused on to road, not really feeling the need to speak. He was genuinely surprised with how comfortable he was with May being the only person in the car. He figured it was because of Dawn's accidental confirmation that May liked him. If Dawn hadn't told him, he probably would have been shifting around at the moment, trying to find the right things to say. Once again, he found himself smiling, enjoying the comfortable silence. He considered making a move right then and there, but decided against it. He wanted it to be a special occasion when he asked her out, not while they were driving. With his mind made up, he continued staring at the roads ahead, not planning on speaking any time soon.

"Ash?" asked May, abruptly shattering the silence.

"Hmm?" hummed Ash. He looked into his rear-view mirror, and could see her sitting in the back seat, looking absolutely adorable in his big red sweatshirt.

"You said you've been in Gary's situation before. What happened?"

"Oh..." said Ash, his tone darkening. "Umm, It's not important. There's no need to talk about it."

May looked into the the rear-view mirror, allowing her to see Ash's eyes. They weren't angry, but they seemed upset. Almost pained. She tilted her head, confused.

"Why won't you tell me? It seems Gary knows what happened. Do you not trust me or something?"

"I trust you, but it's really no big deal. Don't worry about it." sighed Ash.

"It's clearly a big deal if you're refusing to tell me." retorted May.

Ash's grip on the steering wheel tightened again. He let out a rougher sigh than the last one. "May, please, just leave it alone. I don't feel comfortable talking about it, and as my friend, you should respect that."

May considered prying further, but there was something about Ash's tone that made her think twice. She had a hunch that if she kept on asking, things would go downhill very fast.

"Alright, fine... Just know that you can't hide stuff from May Maple. I'll find out soon enough..."

"I don't think you will." replied Ash, his voice stale. _"If you haven't figured it out after 2 years, I doubt you ever will..."_

"We'll see about that... So, what now?"

"What do you mean?" asked Ash.

"What are we going to do now?" asked May. "Everyone's busy but us. Since we don't sleep anymore, we have lots of free time. Let's do something fun, just the two of us."

"Alright... what do _you_ want to do?" asked Ash. "I'm down for anything."

"I dunno... you're a gamer right?"

"Yeah." answered Ash with a small hint of pride present.

"Teach me how to play some video games." said May with a grin. "Who knows; I might beat you at one."

What happened next thoroughly surprised May. Right then and there, she witnessed the oddest thing of her life; Ash began to laugh. But this was not normal laughter. It sounded like the evilest of laughs, piercing deep into her soul. May didn't think a laugh could sound so evil. It petrified her, the only thing she was able to do was stare at the back of his head in fear and discomfort. The chilly, disturbingness of his laugh was only backed by the fact that May had never heard Ash laugh since they had become friends again. She didn't think he was capable of doing it anymore. And what made it EVEN MORE chilling was the fact that this dark, spine-tingling laughter was so different from the happy, joyful laugh that Ash had two years ago. May couldn't decide whether she hated the new laugh or loved it. It was scary, but at the same time, it enchanted her. She couldn't make any sense from it.

After about 15 seconds of laughing darkly, Ash answered May.

"Yeah, I'll teach you to play video games." he said, stifling down the remaining few chuckles he had left. "But you'll never come close to defeating me at one..."

"Eheheheh... I'm sure I'll win at least once..." said May sheepishly, still a little shaken from Ash's unexpected laugh.

...

_2 hours later..._

"I win." said Ash quietly. "Again."

"I hate video games." growled May, dropping her controller.

* * *

_Kevin walked close behind Robbie, not wanting to get separated. They were in a lair of the Demonic Zombies; a place where sticking together was key. If either of the heroes were to let their guard down, their deaths could easily be the result. They had one mission; Plant the super-bomb and detonate it once they were a safe distance away. Things were going smoothly. So far, they had only encountered a few Demonic Zombies in the lair. Only enough to get a few bloodstains on their shirts. But for a lair so large, there didn't seem to be many around. Kevin looked around again, his eyes narrowing. It was quiet. Too quiet.  
_

"Oh man, the suspense is killing me..." mumbled Barry excitedly, his eyes practically glued to the screen. He had a huge grin on his face.

Dawn simply watched quietly, too afraid to speak. They were only about 45 minutes into the movie, and there had already been enough blood, gore, and scares to give her nightmares if she were still capable of sleeping. She let out a shaky sigh, and continued watching the movie.

_Kevin turned around and faced Robbie, both of them hearing a peculiar sound in the distance. It almost sounded like a stampede. The two heroes looked at each other, both of them realizing what it was. But just to make sure, Robbie pointed his flashlight into the darkness ahead, and sure enough, a horde of Demonic Zombies was sprinting towards them, blood dripping from their mouths and hellfire burning where their hair should_ _be._

Dawn screamed, instinctively grabbing Barry's arm for comfort. Barry smiled, pleased that his plan was working. He knew that watching a horror movie with Dawn would eventually lead to lots of physical contact, especially during the jump-scares. There was another reason why he chose a horror movie, but he decided to cross that bridge when he got to it. For the time being, he was satisfied with Dawn holding his arm.

_Kevin and Robbie sprinted away, realizing it was impossible to take on all those zombies at once. They were known as the greatest fighters in The Holy Resistance, but in the end, they were only humans. They knew when to fight, and when to run. As they ran, Robbie began to unhook some grenades from his vest, dropping them on the ground behind him. About 5 seconds after he dropped each one, an explosion would appear behind the heroes, killing some of the Demonic Zombies that were chasing them._

_"We're almost out! I can see the exit!" yelled Robbie, pointing ahead._

_"What about the super-bomb?!" asked Kevin. "We gotta plant it!"_

_"We'll have to wait another day! We're way too outnumbered!" replied Robbie. "Those damned zombies must have known we were coming!"  
_

_"Shit!" swore Kevin._

_Just then, a Demonic Zombie fell from the ceiling, landing on Robbie. It began to claw away at his face, Robbie trying his best to get the creature off.  
_

_"No! Robbie!" cried Kevin, stopping dead in his tracks. With one hand he pulled out his gun, and he unsheathed his katana with the other. "Hands off my friend, you disgusting beast! Holy Light!"  
_

_Kevin glowed white, Holy Power invigorating his body. With perfect aim, he shot the zombie off of Robbie, and cut its head off with his katana. As soon as the Demonic Zombie was killed, the holy light left Kevin's body. He frantically knelt beside Robbie, who was hurt pretty bad by the Demonic Zombie's ambush. Kevin shook him, trying to get a response from his bloody partner.  
_

_"Robbie! Robbie! Speak to me! Come on man, we gotta go! The Demonic Zombies are coming!" shouted Kevin. "I'll get you to a healer's room back at HQ! We'll fix you up!"_

_Robbie's eyes slowly opened, and he looked deep into his friend's eyes. He began to cough._

_"It looks like its the end of the road for me..." he said, his voice strained. "I've been bitten by it... I'm going to turn into one... there is nothing a healer can do. I can already feel my sanity s-slipping. I-it's getting harder to form w-words. J-just know t-this. You w-were m-my b-b-best fr-r-riend... s-seeya l-later..."_

_"NOOOOOOOOO! ROBBIE!" sobbed Kevin. He then looked up to the ceiling, his fists clenched. "CURSE YOU, STEVE! CURSE YOOUUUUUU!"_

_Kevin slowly stood, his closed. He turned around and ran towards the exit, having to leave his best-friend behind. But as he reached the exit, a squad of Demonic Zombies appeared. They lunged at Kevin with blood splashing from their mouths, and hellfire from their-  
_

Dawn screamed, burying her face into Barry's chest. Barry smiled, this being the opportunity he'd been waiting for. He smoothly wrapped his arms around her, comforting the scared girl. They were now embracing each other.

"It's okay Dawn... it's okay..." whispered Barry, trying to console the terrified 19 year-old. "Do you want me to stop the movie? If you're this scared, I'll gladly stop it."

"Please do..." mumbled Dawn, her voice muffled by Barry's chest.

Barry closed the laptop, and continued to hold Dawn.

"It's off." said Barry softly.

Dawn simply hummed, relieved that the terror was over. But she didn't remove herself from Barry. In fact, she held on tighter. Barry couldn't deny that it felt absolutely awesome to have her holding on to him so tightly. He sighed in content. But he couldn't help but feel a small bit of guilt. He had scared her into the embrace. He sighed again, deciding that he'd be more straightforward with his plans next time.

"Barry." asked Dawn.

"Hm?"

"Stay here tonight... I'm scared."

"Of course, Dawn." cooed Barry, his arms still wrapped protectively around the bluenette. "I'll stay... I'll always protect you..."

* * *

Gary entered his apartment building, and as usual during late night hours, 5 or 6 thugs were occupying the lobby. Gary paid them no mind, knowing that as long as he didn't draw attention to himself, they'd leave him alone. He calmly walked to the elevator, making sure not to make any eye contact with the thugs and gangsters. But unfortunately, his left shoe was untied. He tripped over the lace, but thanks to his superhuman reflexes, he didn't fall. But the shuffling of his feet during the trip provided more than enough sounds to draw the attention of the thugs. They all looked at Gary, their leader locking eyes with Gary.

"Hey, you." hollered the leader, pointing to Gary. "Yeah you! The one with the brown hair!"

The guys were on the other side of the lobby, and Gary's heightened sense of smell could still smell the alcohol radiating from the guy's mouth. Not only were they scumbags, they were _drunk _scumbags.

_"Why must life be so difficult?" _thought Gary as he continued walking, ignoring the thug.

"Hey, I'm talking to ya, p-punk!" growled the thug, walking towards Gary. The rest of the thugs followed their leader, all of them heading towards Gary.

Gary ignored the man again and walked a little faster. He reached the elevator, and looked up at the display. The elevator was currently on the 14th floor. He pressed the button to call the elevator, and glanced at the thugs. They were getting closer. Gary glanced at the elevator's display. It was on the the 12th floor. It wouldn't reach him by the time the thugs got to him. Gary sighed and faced the thugs, who were less than 5 feet away from him. Their leader sloppily walked towards Gary, a beer bottle in one hand.

"You've got some b-balls kid... ignoring me like that." slurred the leader. "You should learn to respect... your elders!"

From the corner of his eye, Gary glanced at the display. 9th floor. He looked into the leader's eyes, a sudden anger burning deep inside.

"I've got no respect for a piece of shit like you." spat Gary, looking the leader dead in the eye.

The leader looked at Gary for a second, before turning to his fellow thieves and gangsters with a grin on his face. They all shared a hearty laugh, some of them even mimicking what Gary had said in a feminine voice. Gary watched them, his eyes narrowing. He glanced at the display. 8th floor. Once they had laughed enough, the leader took a swig of his beer and burped in Gary's face.

"Well well well... looks like we've got a stupid one here, boys..." chuckled the leader, talking to his crew. "Whaddaya say we teach him a lesson or two? A physical one, f-free of charge! A little punk like this deserves s-some... discipline! That, and a comb for that rat's nest of a hairdo!"

The rest of the thugs laughed loudly with rotten, yellow grins stretching across their dirty, unshaven faces. Gary looked around, counting the thugs. 4, 5, 6 in all. He glanced at the elevator display one last time. 6th floor.

Without any hesitation, Gary balled his hand into a fist and punched the leader right in the nose, sending him stumbling back into his fellow thugs. He fell to the ground, out cold. The thugs' laughter abruptly ended after that, the situation no longer being a funny one. They all crowded around Gary, fists flying. Gary dodged them all with ease, his superhuman senses kicking in. He ducked, dodging another punch. He then stood back up, uppercutting one of the thugs into the air. The thug landed right on top of the leader, his jaw seemingly broken. This left an opening in the crowd for Gary to escape from. He leaped through the opening, freeing himself from the small huddle of thugs. But he wasn't out of the woods yet.

The remaining 4 thugs came running towards Gary, their fists ready to meet both his face and his stomach. Gary braced himself, taking the same stance a boxer would. The first thug came towards him. The thug went in for a punch, but Gary dodged. Gary retaliated with a powerful punch to the gut. The thug hunched over, the wind knocked out of him. But Gary wasn't finished. He turned around and mercilessly smashed his elbow into the man's back, knocking him onto the ground.

Then, the next thug came. Not having time to turn around, Gary simply backhand punched, Bruce Lee style, minus the screams. His fist met the thug's face, breaking his nose on contact. The man fell backwards, landing on the ground. He cupped his nose, groaning in agony.

Gary turned around, an almost amused look in his eye. The next thug was already in front of him, his fist already heading towards Gary's face. Gary effortlessly dodged. This left the thug totally unguarded. Gary took that as an opportunity to knee the thug in the groin, grab the man's head, and knee him in the face. The man cried out in pain, both his face and reproductive organs severely injured. Gary grabbed the man by the arms and tossed him aside, readying himself for the final thug.

After seeing what Gary had done to his 5 friends, the 6th thug decided that running was probably the best option. Just then, the elevator door opened, and the thug sprinted towards it, seeing that as a safe haven. As soon as he entered the elevator, he repeatedly pressed the "Door Close" button. As he had hoped, the door began to close. He thug rested against the wall of the elevator, thinking he was finally safe. But much to his surprise and horror, right as the door was about to close, a hand gripped it, stopping it from closing. The thug yelped in fear and began to press the "Door Close" button more and more, but the door wasn't closing. The thug watched in terror as Gary forced the elevator door open, a cold, steely look in his eye.

"Please, leave me alone!" begged the thug, his wide eyes beginning to water.

Gary stepped into the elevator, and pressed the "7th floor" button. He then turned to the thug and cracked his knuckles.

"We take back what we said!" cried the thug, his legs trembling in fear. "You're not stupid! Your hair ain't dumb neither!"

Gary took a step closer to the thug, not a single indication that he was listening to the thug's words.

"Please, don't-"

Gary covered the man's mouth with one hand, and with the other, began his brutal assault.

...

Gary stepped out of the elevator, leaving an unconscious, bloody man inside of it. He fished into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He walked down the halls, his hands by his sides until he reached apartment #713. He inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it, unlocking the door. The door opened with a loud squeak, and closed with a loud creak. Gary walked into the apartment, taking a left into the first room. Inside said room was an old man with gray hair and black, bushy eyebrows. He was laying on a bed, many pillows behind his back. As soon as Gary entered the room, he looked Gary in the eyes, his weak, aged lips forming a smile.

"Hello, Gary. Where have you been all day?" asked the man, some concern present in his tone. "You don't have any classes today."

"Hey Gramps... I was just hanging with my friends." said Gary. "I was going to tell you when I left this morning, but you were asleep."

"Ahh.. I am quite the heavy sleeper..." laughed Professor Oak. "Anyway, I ordered some pizza. It's on the kitchen table. Feel free to eat the rest of it, I'm sure you must be hungry."

"Not really... I'm a little tired though." lied Gary, faking a yawn. "I think I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight, Gramps."

"Goodnight Gary. My surgery is at noon tomorrow, so I'll be awake by the time you leave for class."

"Okay..." said Gary as he exited his grandfather's room, closing the door behind him. He walked to the kitchen, and found the pizza Professor Oak had ordered. He opened the box, and took a step back in disgust. Anchovy and Pineapple; his grandfather's favorite. But it was in no way, shape, or form his favorite. He closed the box and took it to his room with him. He opened the door to his room, and as usual, a black creature lurked out, its red eyes staring affectionately at Gary. "Hey Umbreon. Here's some pizza."

Gary dropped the pizza box onto the floor, and Umbreon was more than happy to open the box and chow down on the food. Gary trudged over to his bed and collapsed onto it, a hurricane brewing inside his mind. Finally at rest in his bed, he was able to truly process the day's events. He had woken up with powers. He had left early in the morning to check out the meteor's crash site. He had learned that Ash and Dawn had the powers as well. They went to Barry's dorm. They saw the video. Barry embarrassed him. He went to Ash's dorm. Ash left. They learned they couldn't sleep anymore. They created rules for themselves, and finally, Ash drove him home. And then...

Gary sharply sat up in his bed, realizing that he had just beaten 6 grown men within an inch of their lives only 10 minutes ago.

"Oh my god..." he mumbled, his hand running through his hair. "What the hell... How could I forget that?"

His mind began to replay the altercation over and over, from start to finish. Each time, he realized more and more how violent he had been. It shocked him. Each time he remembered the cries of pain, he cringed. And then he remembered the pleas of the last thug, the one that ran into the elevator, trying to _escape. _Gary's eyes widened, fully realizing what he had done. He had gone primal. For that whole battle, he was a stone-cold pain-machine. But he knew where it came from. He had already been having a bad day, and those thugs just happened to be the ones to send him over the edge.

After thinking about it, a deep fear was born deep inside. Yes, he knew he had a temper, but never had he gone _that _far. The thought of that same calm, merciless rage taking over did scare him, but not as much as something else. What had scared him most was one fact, one fact that he refused to believe, but knew was true deep down._  
_

Part of him had _enjoyed _the beating, and an even bigger part of him couldn't wait to do it again.

* * *

**Alright, here's a riddle. One of these things is not like the others, one of these things doesn't belong. Dawn and Barry are spending the night together, doing god-knows-what. Ash and May are playing video games and are further rebuilding their old friendship. And then you have Gary, who has just brutally beaten 6 men, and is now feeling both guilt and fear. Can you tell which one is different than the rest?  
**

**Lol, but all jokes aside, I wanted to focus some more on character development this chapter, especially May and Gary, since they felt kind of empty to me after reading the first 2 chapters. I think I've already gotten Ash and Dawn's flaws and personality traits down, which leaves only one person left for early character development: Barry. So don't be surprised if a lot of the next chapter focuses on Barry. He's the only one that doesn't have a clear personality flaw yet.**

**That's all from me, seeya around.**

**~DarkSlash9**


	4. Troubles, Mistakes, and Panic

**Hey! Here's Chapter 4! Last time on Pokemon: Divinus, Ash and May decided to spend the night together, and so did Barry and Dawn! But Gary, on the other hand, got into a fight with six drunk thugs, beating the hell out of them! What's going to happen next? Fear not, because you'll find out right now!**

**But first...**

**Q&A!**

GoldenGear6

Great job but will there be actual pokemon involved in this story?

**Answer: A little. They won't have major roles, just background stuff.**

PolarDawn

On the topic of driving, I actually came up with a question for this chapter! Proud of me? Anyway, I was wondering, what car do you picture Ash driving when you write the scenes where he's driving?

**Answer: I actually spent a good 10 minutes trying to think of a car, but I couldn't, so I decided to leave it to the reader's imagination. What came to mind first was a sports car, but they're college students. Who can afford a sports car in college? Not Ash.  
**

**Alright, the time has come. Enjoy Chapter 4 of Pokemon: Divinus!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Troubles, Mistakes, and Panic

* * *

A few minutes had passed since Barry had turned off the horror movie. After a while, Dawn had removed herself from Barry, no longer affected by the terrifying images that they had seen. At Dawn's request, Barry had stayed with her, keeping her company. They spent a considerable amount of time deciding what to do next, since finishing the movie wasn't an option. Right when Barry was about to give up, Dawn came up with the wonderful idea to watch a different movie from the one they watched before; a romantic comedy. Barry shuddered at the idea of watching a film of his least favorite genre, but it was for Dawn, so he decided to take the high road and find one for them to watch. They settled on a film by the name of 'Love, Life, and Leopards'.

They were only 33 minutes into the movie, and Barry already felt like running into the nearest four-way intersection, removing his brain stem, and start skipping rope with it. It had to be the worst man-made creation he had ever seen, his eyes refusing to look at the screen any longer. He hated romantic comedies, but knew a good movie when he saw one. Everything in the movie was awful. The writing, the acting, even the camera angles. It was a train wreck. He turned to Dawn, and much to his bewilderment, she had her hands clasped together, a fascinated smile on her face.

"_How_ are you enjoying this?" whispered Barry incredulously.

"Shhhhhhh!" hushed Dawn, covering Barry's mouth with her hand. "She's about to meet the guy!"

"Which guy?!" asked Barry, removing Dawn's hand from his face. "She's already met like, 4 of them!"

"Shhhhhhh!" hushed Dawn again. "This is _the _guy!"

"Watching this is killing my brain cells."

"Well get used to it, because we're watching the whole trilogy!" replied Dawn.

_"I've made a terrible mistake." _thought Barry monotonously.

* * *

Laying in the darkness of his room was Gary Oak, staring at the ceiling. At the moment, the only thing darker than his room was his mind. It was clouded with conflicting emotions and thoughts, 99.9% of them related to the thugs he had beaten up earlier. He couldn't get over it. It had haunted him for hours on end, every scream, cry... every plea for mercy from the final thug he had attacked in the elevator. He had considered going back to see if they were alright, but he opted not to. The consequences of going back far outweighed the benefits. He eventually deserted the idea completely, deciding to think on a different aspect of the incident.

Why.

He knew he was having a bad day, it was a fact. But he'd gone through bad days before, and never had he felt the desire to mercilessly pummel 6 grown men. He felt an anger unlike anything he'd felt before, and each blow dealt to the men helped alleviate the anger, a sadistic rush following shortly after.

_"What's wrong with me...? I usually know how to cope with the toughness of life... that wasn't me back there. That was something else, I know that much. But how? What caused it...? I can't just believe that it was something inevitable, that I was bound to smash a couple of guys' faces in sooner or later... Something in particular must have happened today that caused me to resort to violence instead... but what?"_

Then, like a tidal wave crashing onto shore, it hit him. Dawn. Dawn had caused it. Not literally, but indirectly. Having to come to terms with the fact that she'd never return his feelings... that must have triggered it. Gary was a hardened person; when life handed him lemons (which it did more often than he'd liked), he always knew how to make lemonade. But the sourness that arrived with the acceptance of his unrequited feelings? No combination of optimism and fortitude could alleviate the harsh, heart-wrenching pain that came with the dreaded realization.

_"I have to tell her soon... before this drives me insane." _he thought, looking at his watch. His eyes widened. _"5:41AM?! Have I really been laying here thinking for over 5 hours?!"_

He glanced down at the ground, and sure enough, Umbreon was fast asleep. He rolled out of his bed and opened his curtains. It was still dark outside, but on the horizon, the sky was a tint bluer than the navy blue skies above, meaning the Sun was on its way. He really had spent the whole night thinking. It only felt like minutes, but it was clearly more than that. Gary simply shook his head, exhaling roughly. He closed the curtains, and right as he was about to turn around, his superhuman hearing picked up a noise in the distance. It was getting louder and louder by the second, and it was a repetitive sound. He turned around and opened the curtains, and saw red and white lights piercing through the darkness of the city.

"The police... and an ambulance..." muttered Gary, his expression darkening.

He knew why they were on their way. He closed his curtains and sat back into his bed, silent. His hands were clasped together, his head leaning on them. He heard the sirens stop, meaning the vehicles must have arrived at the apartment building. Gary began to concentrate. He didn't know if he'd be able to or not, but he tried anyway; he stayed quiet, hoping he'd be able to hear what was going on in the lobby, 6 floors below him.

He listened. Nothing was heard. He tried harder, making sure he had stopped breathing. Still, he heard nothing. His hands gripped eachother tighter, his eyebrows furrowing.

"...I can't just sit here and not know what's happening down there." he growled, standing up. He grabbed his apartment keys and briskly left his room, his hands balled into fists.

He exited his apartment and jogged down the hall, arriving at the elevator. He was about to press the button, but decided not to. He didn't want to be seen by anyone, and he'd definitely be seen if he entered the scene of the crime through the elevator. He withdrew his hand and jogged to the stairwell. Wasting no time, Gary jogged down several flights in no time at all, arriving on the third floor in less than a minute.

"Thank God for these powers..." he mumbled as he entered the third floor.

Being only 2 floors above the lobby, it was much easier for Gary to hear what was happening. He leaned against the nearest wall, his eyes closed. He listened, and as he expected, the voices in the lobby were as clear as glass.

"Sir, do you know who did this to you?" asked a voice. It sounded like an Officer Jenny.

There was a pause, and then another voice was heard.

"Y-yeah... it was a kid. Brown hair..."

Gary recognized that voice. It was the leader of the thugs, the first one to be knocked out in the battle.

"Sir, we are going to need a better description than that." said the Officer Jenny. "Age? Eye color? Ethnicity?"

"He h-had to be like, 19 or 20... white kid, black eyes... pretty generic looking if ya ask me... He also had spiky hair... reaaaaaal spiky. Like, Sonic the Hedgehog spiky..."

Gary's eyes widened. It was an accurate description, minus the Sonic the Hedgehog hair. He began to feel nauseous, nervousness setting in. If the police were to come up with an accurate sketch of him, he'd be arrested in no time. He listened in some more, hoping the thug would screw up in his description somewhere along the line. But he didn't. He had given Officer Jenny a perfect description, and Gary had no doubt that his face would be on the news sooner or later.

_"This is not good..." _he thought, beginning to tap his foot on the floor in anxiety. He listened in some more.

"Thank you, that's more than enough information. Lucy, have you come up with a sketch?" asked Officer Jenny.

"Yes Officer, I have." answered a third voice. "Sir, does this look anything like the young man that attacked you?"

There was a pause. Gary shut his eyes.

"Yeah." said the thug. "Yep, that looks just like him. I can't wait to find that punk and kick his ass up and down the block."

"There's no need for that sir." said Officer Jenny dryly. "The police will take it from here. Rest assured, justice _will_ be served."

Gary's heart sank. Deciding that he didn't need to hear anything else, he went back to the stairwell, his hands trembling. Not only was he stressed, he was afraid. Things had just taken a colossal turn for the worse, and there was not a shadow of doubt in his mind that the sketch would be all over the city by morning.

Once he made it back to his grandfather's apartment, he went to his room, locking himself inside. From his window, he watched the paramedics take the injured thugs to the ambulance, some clearly more injured than others. He looked at his watch. 6:00am. He stared off into the distance, the sunrise indicating the start of a new day. But the day being new in no way meant that it'd be a good one. Gary knew that for sure.

* * *

"Y'know, I'm glad I stayed the night here." said May, standing up. "I feel like we got a lot closer last night. I wish I could stay longer, but I have class at 7:00."

"Last night?" asked Ash. "It's still night time."

"No, it's not. Look out the window." said May, pointing to the other side of the room.

Ash looked, and May was absolutely right. The sun was rising, meaning the night was over. He looked at his alarm clock. 6:02am. Ash's eyes widened slightly; he really had lost track of the time. It seemed like much less, but it turned out they'd been playing games and talking for well over 5 hours.

"Damn." spoke Ash. "Time really flies when you're having fun."

"Having fun?" asked May jokingly, an eyebrow raised. "Who says I was having_ fun_?"

"I don't know about you, but _I_ was." said Ash, his voice a little less stale than usual.

Caught off guard by Ash's straightforward response, May stared down at him. He simply remained sitting on the floor, staring back, waiting for her to say something. His facial expression gave off the feel that he was indifferent on what she'd say next, but in actuality, it was the exact opposite. He didn't know what he wanted her to say, but he wanted her to say something positive. Something that would close their time spent together on a high note. Much to his relief, May grinned.

"Yeah, I had fun too." she said, a barely noticeable tint of pink on her cheeks. "I'm glad we got to spend some 1-on-1 time."

"Good to hear." said Ash standing, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket looked at May. "So... um, can I have your phone number?"

"...You don't have it?" asked May, genuinely confused. "You had it in High School though..."

"Oh, ummm- err, ahh..." stuttered Ash. He had to come up with a quick excuse. The truth was that he had deleted May's number a few weeks after she had started dating Drew, thinking their friendship had died. He now regretted that. "I got a new phone, and I guess I forgot to transfer your number to it."

"Oh, okay. It's ###-####. I'd ask for your number, but I think I still have it... let me just check..." May dipped her hands into her pockets. Immediately, she froze. She began to pat herself frantically, and then she sighed. "I forgot my phone in Dawn's room."

"You should probably go get it." stated Ash as he put May's number into his phone. "Want me to go with you?"

"Why would you need to go with me?" snorted May.

"I dunno, protection? There's some spooky people out there."

"Not to emasculate you or anything, but we both know I could probably protect myself about 100x better than you can, right? Even without the powers, I do have that whole 5-years-of-martial-arts-training thing going for me."

"Do you want me to come or not?"

"Yeah, let's go." said May walking towards the door. Right as she was about to exit, she paused, looking down at the big, red sweatshirt she was wearing. "So... can I keep this? The sweatshirt, I mean."

"Go ahead." said Ash, turning off the lights of his dorm. "It's a little too big on you though."

"I know, I like it. It's soooooo comfortable." said May happily, walking into the hallway. "Come on, we don't have much time. Professor Rowan's a prick when it comes to late students."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." sighed Ash, following May.

The two stayed silent after that, walking with their eyes focused straight ahead. As soon as they stepped outside, their senses were bombarded with hundreds of the different sounds of nature, each one just as loud as the rest. The pair flinched a bit, but were able to ignore the over-stimulation after a while. It was something they'd have to deal with presumably for the rest of their lives, so they had to get used to it eventually. Once their minds were at peace, they both entered states of deep thought.

Ash watched May, who was walking ahead of him. The radiant light of the rising sun shone on the upper half of her body, giving it a golden glow. Ash couldn't help but smile. _"I've missed this... just being able to walk with her and being able to talk like there's no awkwardness between us. She's so awesome... I can't let her get away. Life's given me a second chance with this, and I swear, I am not screwing up like last time. I can't wait too long, or some other guy's gonna take her, just like Drew did. I can't let that happen. I have to ask her out within the next 2 weeks. But the thing is, I want it to be special. But how?"_

May's sapphire eyes were staring at the ground below, her eyebrows furrowed. _"Ash__ is so... mysterious. We spent so much time together last night, and we told each other so much, yet I still feel like I don't fully know him. He's being nice to me... but there's something off about him. The way he acts, everything he does; it feels like he's got something to hide. Not something bad; just something he won't tell me. I have to find out what's really going on with him. It almost feels like he's harboring some kind of subconscious resentment towards me... Maybe he doesn't trust me? Maybe he thinks we're not true friends yet... I know! All I have to do is show him I'm serious about us being friends again! And I know just how!"_

"Hey Ash." said May, turning around. She began to walk backwards, allowing her to both see Ash and keep on moving at the same time. "I have something pretty cool to tell you."

It took Ash a few seconds to reply, because he was too busy adoring May's beauty. The golden light of the early sun perfectly enhanced her features, and Ash couldn't help but stare in admiration. May tilted her head and pouted, waiting for Ash to answer.

"Oh, um, yeah? Something cool? What?" asked Ash, breaking out of his trance. May giggled quite loudly, slightly offending Ash. "What's so funny?"

"Your face." replied May. Ash rolled his eyes. "But anyway, yeah, I have something really cool to tell you. I'm taking my black belt test in 9 days! Isn't that just awesome?"

"Um, yes?" asked Ash awkwardly.

"Yes." answered May. "But my dojang isn't a big one, so the number of spectators per student is limited to 1. I've been doing some thinking, and I think you should be the one."

"You want me to be there for your black belt test? Why me?"

"Well it was _your _idea for me to take Tae Kwon Do classes. It only makes sense that you should be there to see me become a black belt." said May, pointing towards Ash.

"I said that as a joke when we were 15 years old. I didn't expect you to actually do it." said Ash scratching his head. But then, a light-bulb turned on in his head, and he smiled. "But sure, I'll definitely go. I can't wait."

"Cool." said May, turning around. As soon as she had turned around, Ash fist pumped.

_"Oh man, I feel **real** good about my life right now."_ he thought. His mind had just formulated the perfect plan to ask out May, and he was oh so very ready to put it into action. _"Just 9 days..."_

* * *

"Wow, what a superb trilogy." said Dawn, closing her laptop. Just like Dawn had said they would, they had watched the whole 'Love, Life, and Leopards' trilogy. She looked to the window of her apartment, and gasped. "Oh wow, Barry! It's already morning!"

Yes Dawn, it's morning." sighed Barry monotonously, removing his head from the pillow case he had stuffed it in. "6:42am to be exact."

"That was quite the surprise Barry." said Dawn, putting her laptop back under her bed.

"What? The fact that my head hasn't exploded yet? Because if so, I am just as surprised as you are."

"No, no, no, the whole night in general. I must admit, I was very skeptical when you declared we were going to do something more fun than studying. But low and behold, I ended up having a very enjoyable time. And it's all because of you."

"Oh well, um, I just thought that you needed someone to snap you out of your studying addiction." said Barry, hopping off of Dawn's bed. "I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"I didn't just enjoy it. I _loved _it." said Dawn as she took a step towards Barry.

She pulled him into a tight hug, leaving Barry at a loss for words. He had never been hugged by a girl other than his mother. He had never been very good with girls at all. In fact, he had just recently acquired the art of flirting, which was why he did it so often with Dawn. It was like a brand new toy, one that he liked to play with as much as he could. But even though he was no longer an awkward guy, he still blushed a bit when _any_ girl touched him without warning. But since it was Dawn, he blushed _a lot_. Dawn removed her face from his chest and noticed his red face. She giggled.

"Barry."

"Y-yeah?"

Dawn stood to the tips of her toes and kissed Barry's cheek.

"Thanks." said Dawn with a smile.

"Y-y-y-y-you're w-wel-welcome." stuttered Barry frantically.

"Are you okay?" asked Dawn.

"I'm fine!" said Barry quickly. "Oh gosh, you probably think that I was grossed out by that or something!No, I wasn't!I'm just a little shocked, that's all!You could never gross me out!You're so clean and pretty and awesome and smart (sometimes) and organized and-"

"Barry, I think you're overreacting just a little. I didn't think any of that. I was just concerned because you were stuttering a lot."

"And when you think about it, I'm organized too!We're both so similar!I really enjoyed last night too!It was fun!You enjoyed last night too, right?!Wow, another similarity!Please don't hate me!I'm not weird, I promis-"

"Barry!" laughed Dawn, shaking the panicking blonde by his shoulders. "Calm down!"

"Huh?! Wha?!" slurred Barry, snapping out of whatever state of panic he was in. He blinked a couple times and looked at Dawn. She seemed pretty amused by his small panic attack. His shoulder slumped, and an embarrassed chuckle sounded from his mouth."Oh... sorry about that."

"What was _that?" _asked Dawn, recovering from her laughter.

"Just an um, bad habit. Don't worry about it." laughed Barry nervously. "So um, I guess I'll be leaving now?"

"This early? It's only 6:51am." said Dawn.

"Well, I guess I can stay for a while. Hey, can I use your laptop? I have to e-mail my History assignment to Professor Elm. I emailed it to myself yesterday, so I'll be able to open the file from your laptop."

"Sure." said Dawn, walking toward her bed.

_Knock knock!_

"Someone's at the door." observed Barry. "Don't worry, Dawn, I'll get the laptop. You open the door." said Barry, walking towards Dawn's bed.

"Okay." said Dawn, walking towards her door instead of her bed. Before opening it, she cleared her throat. "Who is it?"

"Me." answered the person on the other side of the door. Their voice was quiet, calm, and serious.

Dawn recognized the voice, and the sound of it in such a dark tone worried her. Without a second's hesitation, she opened the door, revealing none other than Gary Oak. His clothes seemed so have some dirt on them, and there were one or two dead leaves lodged in his hair. He looked terrible. There was a frown on his face, and his eyes had a weak look in them.

"Oh my goodness... Gary, what's wrong?!" asked Dawn, immediately placing a hand on his forehead. "Are you sick?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." said Gary, calmly removing Dawn's hand from his forehead.

At the sound of Gary's voice, Barry's head perked up in curiosity. But unfortunately, his head was still under the bed at the time, which caused him to accidentally smash his head on the wooden framework of the bed. Barry groaned in pain, a hand clutching his aching head.

"What happened to your clothes? You look like you've journeyed through a jungle!" asked Dawn, brushing the dirt and leaves off Gary. "You should really be more careful! This was a nice sweater too! Nice fabric, great pattern, complimentary color scheme-"

"Dawn, I took a shortcut through the woods, it's not that big of a deal." said Gary, once again removing Dawn's hand from him. "Listen, I need to talk to you. Now. It's _really_ important."

"Um, sure, come on in." said Dawn, gesturing for Gary to enter. Gary did not enter.

"No... in private." said Gary, pointing to Barry, who was still under the bed, whimpering in pain. Gary turned his back to Dawn and walked down the hall, his hands in his pockets. "Follow me."

"Hold on." said Dawn. She then turned around, facing Barry. "Barry-"

"Yeah, I heard." said Barry removing his head from under the bed. He looked at Dawn, a smile on his face. It was a fake smile, but Dawn seemed to fall for it. "Go ahead, I'll hold down the fort."

"I'll be back in a minute or two." said Dawn, leaving with Gary.

Barry simply waved, waiting for Dawn to close the door. She did, and as soon as she did, he frowned.

"*sigh*, Dawn... I really don't understand you sometimes..." he mumbled as he opened her laptop. "Gary's such a dick, yet it seems like you care about him more than anyone else..."

As soon as Barry had opened Dawn's laptop, a blank blue screen appeared. In the center of the screen, there was a box labeled 'Password'. Barry swore under his breath, wishing he had opened the laptop before Dawn had left with Gary. He thought for a while, thinking of a password that Dawn would use. He nodded his head and typed 'ILoveLearning' into the box. He pressed the 'Enter' key, and much to his amusement, the laptop accepted the password.

"Too easy..." he mumbled as Dawn's icons started to appear on the computer's desktop. He clicked the Internet Explorer icon, and waited for the web browser to open. It was taking a long time to load, leaving Barry to his thoughts.

_"I can't believe I spazzed out when Dawn kissed my cheek. Oh shit, she kissed my cheek! YES! ...But I freaked out after. I totally ruined the moment. Wait, does kissing my cheek mean that she likes me? Or was it just a kind gesture? Probably the latter, since the only person she seems to care about is Gary motherfucking Oak... I swear, he's luckier than he thinks. I wish Dawn cared about me that much. But what if she does and I'm just over-thinking things? But what if I'm not? What if- oh, Internet Explorer is done loading. Cool."_

Internet Explorer had opened, but it hadn't loaded the homepage yet. Luckily, it only took a few seconds. The homepage Dawn had set was the local news website. Barry's eyes traveled straight to the top of the screen, planning on going straight to his email website. But before he did, something on the homepage caught his attention. They were big, bold, red words, near the middle of the screen.

"Developing Story... Six Grown Men Mercilessly Beaten?" read Barry aloud. He scrolled down, and skimmed through the story. "Let's see here... a little over an hour ago, six men found beaten... three with minor injuries, two with major injuries... one with multiple broken ribs, a shattered jaw, and a torn MCL?! Geez... who the heck could take down 6 guys like that?... Police sketch of the suspect below... hmmm..."

Barry scrolled down, and frowned.

* * *

Dawn followed Gary down the hall, neither she nor her brown-haired friend speaking. They walked down many halls, and turned around many corners, all in complete silence. Dawn could tell something was on his mind, as Gary was usually the type to strike up a conversation when there was a long silence. But this time, he simply walked on ahead, his eyes fixed on the halls ahead of him. Finally, Dawn had had enough silence. She stopped walking, her hands on her hips.

"Okay, I think we've gone far enough. Even with the Divinus senses, there is no way Barry would be able to hear our conversation. What do you want to tell me that's so important that Barry can't be present anyway?"

Gary sighed and turned around, making eye contact. He waited a second, and then spoke.

"Dawn. We've known each other for a long time, right?"

"Mhmmm." hummed Dawn. "Approximately 7 years."

"It's safe to say that we're more than friends, right?" asked Gary, his eyes doing their best to stay locked on Dawn's.

"Of course. I know I may seem naggy and overbearing, but I hope you're aware that it's because I care. I-"

"What kind of care?" asked Gary eagerly, cutting Dawn off.

"I don't understand the question." said Dawn, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

"What do you mean by 'care'? Do you care for me like you do everyone else, or is it more?" asked Gary, taking a step closer to Dawn. "And by more, I mean _more._"

"Gary, what's wrong? You're being very odd. This behavior isn't like you." asked Dawn, putting a hand on Gary's shoulder.

"Please answer my question." said Gary tiredly.

"Tell me what's wrong first." said Dawn in a motherly tone.

"You want to know what's wrong?" asked Gary darkly, removing Dawn's hand from his shoulder. "Well, Dawn, allow me to tell you what's wrong. Perhaps it'll provide a large amount of 'knowledge' to that brain of yours. I'm a mess. Even before we got these powers, I could barely eat, sleep or do anything of importance. For the greater part of the last decade, a certain issue had been slowly eating away at my mind and soul, poisoning me to the point that I can no longer make good decisions. I've talked to many people about it, and I've looked up many solutions online. After a while, I learned that this issue wasn't coming from my shitbox of a family, no, it was coming from a certain person I know. This person has been driving me nuts for years, and for some awful reason, it just gets worse and worse every freaking year! The reason is because I love that person. I would do anything for them, and it kills me inside to know that-"

"Hey is that Gary and Dawn?" echoed a voice down the hall.

"*sigh*, May, I think we're interrupting something." said another voice through gritted teeth.

Gary turned around, and down the hall was none other than Ash and May. While the former was mouthing the words 'I'm so sorry' to Gary, the latter was waving her arms at Dawn and Gary, trying to get their attention.

"Hey guys!" called May.

"Hey May!" called Dawn. "What brings you two here? And is that _Ash's _sweatshirt you're wearing?"

"Oh..." said May, looking down at the over-sized sweatshirt she was still wearing. She looked back up at Dawn and winked. "Yeah, it is! He gave it to me!"

"Oooooh, did he really?" asked Dawn, taking a step towards May. But in doing so, she bumped into Gary, who's stare had left her, falling to the floor instead. There was a pained, exasperated look in his eyes. Dawn paused to whisper something in his ear. "Gary, I hate seeing you like this. If you ever need any help, just come talk to me. You're like the brother I don't have, and your problems are my problems, by default. Promise you'll finish explaining everything to me later?"

Opting not to speak, Gary simply nodded his head. Dawn gave him a tight hug, one in which he didn't return, and skipped over to Ash and May to meet the two halfway. Gary watched her go, not a single sign of emotion present on his face.

Meanwhile, Ash's eyes were darting back and forth between Dawn and Gary. He knew that there was a high chance that Gary was trying to tell Dawn his feelings, and he knew for a fact that he and May had just ruined everything; Gary's facial expression, or lack thereof, made that very clear. He glanced at May, and it seemed like she could feel the tenseness in the air as well. The only person who seemed perfectly oblivious to it was Dawn, who was standing in front of Ash and May with an excited smile on her face.

"Why are you guys here? And why are you _together?"_ asked Dawn, her hands on her hips.

"I forgot my phone in your dorm." answered May. "We came to get it."

"Okay... but that does not answer my second question! Why is Mr. Ass Ketchup with you?" asked Dawn, putting emphasis on her nickname for Ash.

"Because I was with her when she realized she forgot her phone, _nerd._" replied Ash. "Stop calling me Ass Ketchup."

"Stop calling me a nerd." sassed Dawn, her eyes narrowing.

"Nerd." replied Ash venomously.

"Ass Ketchup." retorted Dawn.

"You guys do this way too often." sighed May, stepping between the two. "Sorry, but there's no time for you guys to continue calling each other names, stare at each other, and then burst into laughter. I have class in 4 minutes, and I still have to go to my dorm and get my books..."

"Oh calm down, May, in case you forgot, this is college. There aren't any repercussions for being late." said Dawn.

"Coming from the girl that is always 10 minutes early to every class..." mumbled Ash, earning a death glare from Dawn.

"So Dawn, where's Barry? I saw him follow you out of Ash's dorm last night." asked May, walking down the hall.

"Oh, he's in my dorm." replied Dawn, following May. "He's using my laptop to submit an assignment."

"Perfect." said May, turning to Ash. "Ash, can I borrow your phone?"

"Sure, but why?" asked Ash, giving his phone to May.

"I'm just going to call him so he can stop by my room later tonight and give me my phone. I really don't feel like walking to Dawn's room, and Barry's dorm is near mine, so it'll be easy." answered the brunette.

As soon as Ash handed the phone over to May, it began to ring. May looked at the caller ID, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh wow, perfect timing, it's Barry." said May, giving the phone back to Ash.

Ash pressed the 'Answer' button and held the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

_"Stop whatever you're doing and come to Dawn's room."_ said Barry seriously. _"No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Dawn's room, ASAP." _

Barry then hung up, leaving Ash beyond perplexed. May and Dawn were looking at him, waiting for him to speak.

"What did he say?" asked May.

"He wants me in Dawn's dorm, now." answered Ash.

"Oh good! You can go get my phone while you're there!"

"No," said Ash, grabbing May's hand. "You're going too."

"She's wearing your sweatshirt, and now you're holding her hand. An intriguing turn of events, hmm?" asked Dawn, following the pair.

Ash pretended not to hear Dawn's question, and May blushed. The trio walked down the hall, and when they passed Gary, May and Ash awkwardly greeted him. They both wore smiles, but had apologetic looks in their eyes. Gary, knowing they didn't mean to interrupt his confession, mumbled some inaudible words and followed his friends down the hall, his eyebrows furrowed and his hands shoved into his pockets.

* * *

Barry nervously paced back and forth across Dawn's room, a nauseous feeling overtaking him. He had only called Ash 30 seconds ago, yet it seemed like centuries had passed since then. He felt sick to his stomach, and even though his superhuman body no longer required oxygen to function, he found himself hyperventilating.

_"I can't believe this, oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit, oh shit..." _he thought frantically. _"This is bad. This is not good. Bad this is. Badddd... Maybe It's not him. Maybe I'm just overreacting... I do that pretty often. Let's check again. I mean, Gary's got a pretty generic look, it could have been anyone!"_

Barry briskly walked back to the laptop, which was on Dawn's bed. He went to the top of the page and clicked the 'refresh' button. The page began to reload, and when it finished loading, new words that were not present before were on the screen. The new headline: 'Breaking News, Suspect Identified as College Student Gary Oak!'.

Barry's face went pale.

_"Fuck, it's him! Oh no no no no no... he's sooooo screwed... I don't like him, but still, I don't want him to go to jail! Why did he beat up those guys anyway?! Ugghhh Dawn's not going to take this well... this is just typical of Gary. He never, EVER thinks before he does stuff. I'm sick and tired of bailing him out of the shit he gets himself into... WHERE THE FUCK IS ASH?! HE NEEDS TO SEE_ _THIS! But... what if he attacks ME for telling Ash?! He'll kill me!"  
_

"Hey Barry." said Ash, entering the room.

Behind Ash was everyone else, Gary included. The first thing they all noticed was how haggard Barry looked. This greatly surprised Dawn, since he looked completely fine when she had left.

"Barry, what's wrong?" asked Dawn. "You seem panicked."

"Yeah," chuckled May. "You look like you've seen things."

"I. Have." said Barry, trying to hold back the panic that was brewing inside on him. He didn't expect Ash to come in with the whole group. He had only wanted to tell Ash, since he thought Ash would be able to come up with a better way to handle the situation. But it was too late to turn back. He gathered up some courage, trying to push away his panic. He took a deep breath and turned to Gary, a serious look in his eye. "Where where _you_ last night?"

"Why do you need to know?" asked Gary quietly.

"J-just answer." replied Barry, his courage slowly retreating.

"I was in Ash's dorm, playing video games with him." said Gary.

"Is that it? Did you do anything of worth mentioning after th-that?" asked Barry. "Think long and hard."

Gary's eyes narrowed, his head tilting a bit. There was no way Barry knew of what had happened the night before... or was there? The police had only been in his apartment building a little over an hour ago, there was no way the story would have reached the news already. And even if it did reach the news, the news was on television. Dawn didn't have one, so it was impossible for Barry to have found out. But then Gary's eyes noticed the laptop that was placed directly in front of Barry, and a chill surged through his body. The local news channel _did _have a website, and Dawn _did _visit the website pretty often. In fact, he remembered Dawn telling him something about making it her homepage...

His body acting off instinct, Gary walked towards the laptop, which meant he was walking towards Barry as well. As soon as Gary took his first step, Barry grabbed the laptop and closed it. He then leaped off the bed, laptop in hands. Ash, Dawn, and May, who were watching everything, raised an eyebrow.

"Give me the laptop." said Gary quietly, only a few steps away from Barry.

"No!" hollered Barry, feeling a surge of bravery. "Never!"

"Okay, what's going on here?" asked May. "Barry, why did you call Ash here?"

"Gary attac-"

Before Barry could finish his sentence, Gary grabbed Barry by the shirt, covered his mouth, and pushed him to the nearest wall. With enough force to shake some of the nearby furniture.

May's eyes widened. "Holy shi-"

"Gary! What are you doing?!" cried Dawn.

Instead of speaking, Ash sprang into action. He made his way to Gary and Barry, and immediately inserted himself in between them. He removed Gary's hand from Barry's mouth, and then turned to Gary.

"Okaaaaayyyy, what's this all about?" he asked, in a voice that was way too calm for the situation.

"Move!" snarled Gary, trying to shove Ash out of the way. "Let me at him!"

Ash grabbed Gary's other hand, releasing the latter's grip on Barry's shirt. With both of Gary's hands in Ash's, Ash pushed Gary forward and pinned him onto the floor, ending their short struggle. Dawn shrieked at the sight of Ash forcefully pinning Gary, while May simply watched, wide-eyed. Gary on the other hand, was not surprised by Ash's move, or at least made no indication of it. Instead, he launched a few efforts to get out of Ash's hold, and even though they were all futile, he refused to submit.

While Gary tried to squirm free, Ash looked over his shoulder at Barry, an eyebrow raised.

"So, mind telling us why he's trying to rip your head off?" he asked.

"He-"

"Barry... If you speak..." growled Gary, looking directly at Barry. "Mark my words. I will beat the shit out of you."

"Not while I'm here." said Ash, tightening his hold on Gary. "Barry, continue."

"He... h-he..." Barry couldn't stop looking at Gary. Gary was glaring daggers into his soul, and even though Ash was holding him down, he was still way too terrified to continue speaking. "*sigh*, just see for yourself."

Barry shakily walked over to May, handing her the laptop. May looked at Dawn, and Dawn shrugged. May also shrugged, and then opened the laptop. She read the first thing that came up, and her eyes widened. She then scrolled down the page, skimming through the article. As she skimmed through it, she made all sorts of faces, but none of them were positive ones. When she had finished reading, her eyes immediately traveled to Gary, then Barry, then Ash, and then, last but not least, Dawn. She then closed the laptop, handed it to Dawn, and placed a hand on her forehead.

"You have _got _to be kidding me, Gary..." groaned May, her eyes closed. "We haven't even had the powers for 2 whole days and you've already screwed something up!"

"What did he do?" asked both Dawn and Ash.

"Dawn, feel free to read the article aloud. I can't stick around to explain, I have to get to class." said May, walking towards the door. But before she left, she turned around and looked at Gary, who was still being held down by Ash. "Congratulations, idiot."

At this point, Gary had given up, knowing the secret was out. He shut his eyes tight, waiting for Dawn to open her laptop and read the article. Dawn opened the laptop, but as soon as she did, the screen went black. She closed the laptop.

"How ill-timed, the laptop's battery is depleted." sighed Dawn. "Gary, just tell me what you've done."

Gary did not answer.

"Gary," repeated Dawn, more force in her voice this time. "tell me what you've done."

Gary mumbled something, but it was so quiet and soft that nobody could understand him.

"Speak up." commanded Dawn.

"I got into a fight." muttered Gary. "That's all."

"OOOOOHH, NO, don't you freaking sugar-coat it!" growled Barry, a sudden anger rising. Barry's latent hatred for Gary was finally awakening, and after many years of watching Gary's antics put Dawn in states of panic and worry, he was ready to explode. He stood to his feet, his fists clenched. He began to pace back and forth as he spoke, indicating he was really worked up. "That is _such_ an understatement that personally, I'd view it as a lie! And with all the effort and care Dawn puts into trying to keep you out of trouble, she really doesn't deserve to be lied to! Why don't you tell the goddamn truth, huh?! Why don't ya tell her that you didn't get into a fight, but a full-on brawl with six grown men! 2 with major injuries, 3 with minor, and one with _several_ broken ribs! You used your powers to do something terrible, not even 4 hours after we made a set of rules for ourselves, a set in which Dawn herself SPECIFICALLY added the rule of not using our powers to get away with bad actions! Good grief, do you even think before you act sometimes?! I'll answer: YOU FUCKING DON'T. You never do! Time and time again, you do some stupid shit that 99.9 percent of the fucking time ends with all of us saving your sorry ass! You don't even have anyone to blame either, because it's your fucking fault we have these powers in the first place! If we didn't have to haul your drunk ass back home after that party, we'd all be normal people, and none of this would have even happened! Ugh! You're like a 5 year-old with a listening issue or somethin-"

"Barry, that is _enough_!" shouted Dawn, stomping a foot on the floor for emphasis. "At this time, I must ask you to leave my dorm. Now."

Barry, still frazzled by the intensity of his rant, looked at Dawn, his eyes wide. Dawn glared right back, her gaze practically burning holes through his head. Barry's face quickly went from surprised to a mixture of hurt and sadness. Without protest, he turned towards the door and headed out.

But Gary wasn't going to let him get away that easily. During Barry's speech, Ash had subconsciously eased up his hold on Gary. With a push that required much less force than he used, Gary shoved Ash off of him, causing the raven haired student to collide into the nearby wall, head first. Dawn gasped, and Barry turned around. By the time he had, though, Gary was already less than a meter away from him.

"Wh-"

"YOU JUST LOVE RUNNING YOUR MOUTH, HUH?" roared Gary as he lunged towards Barry. Even with the superhuman reflexes, Barry couldn't get out of the way in time. Gary tackled him to the ground, his hands immediately wrapping around Barry's neck. "YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME?! YOU THINK YOU KNOW MY LIFE, AND WHAT I GO THROUGH?! FUCK YOU! IF YOU GREW UP THE WAY I DID, YOU WOULDN'T BE SAYING SHIT! FUCK YOU! YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT ANYTHING, BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST A LITTLE PRICK THAT LIKES TO FLIRT WITH GIRLS! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY ANYTHING! FUCK YOU! YOU'RE JUST AN INSECURE LITTLE SHIT THAT'S CONSTANTLY IN THE WAY OF ME REACHING THE ONLY THING IN THIS WORLD THAT COULD EVER, _EVER _MAKE ME HAPPY! HELL WILL FREEZE OVER BEFORE YOU COULD EVER UNDERSTAND ME, OR ANYTHING ABOUT ME! AND SPEAKING OF HELL, GO TO IT!"

Gary released his grip on Barry's neck, deciding to hurl as many punches on the blonde's face as he could. But thanks to the reflexes, Barry was able to dodge most of them. The few that did hit had only grazed his face, leaving a few cuts and bruises, but nothing else. Barry had plenty of opportunities to counterattack, but due to his pacifist beliefs, he didn't take any of them, even though they were very tempting. Instead he opted to shout every single curse in the English language at Gary, each word dripping with absolute hatred.

Meanwhile, Dawn ran to Ash, who was wavering in and out of consciousness due to his heavy collision with the hard walls of Dawn's dorm. She knelt by his side and shook him as softly as she could, which was difficult, because she was panicking.

"Ash! Please, stop them!" she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Come on! Snap out of it!"

"Ughhh..." groaned Ash, rubbing his aching head. "Whaa...?"

"Look!" sobbed Dawn, pointing to Gary and Barry, who were still going at it. "Please! Do something!"

"Sure thing... Dawn." said Ash huskily, standing up with shaky legs.

His head pulsating with pain, Ash wobbled his way to Gary and Barry, his eyes struggling to stay open. They were only about 10 steps away, but his current condition made the journey a full 30 seconds long. Finally, when he had gotten behind Gary, he lifted him off Barry, tossing him in the opposite direction. As soon as Gary was off, Barry scrambled to his feet and felt his face. He looked down at his hand, and there was some blood smeared on it. He growled and stormed out, slamming the door shut as he left. Gary, who had landed on his face, after Ash had thrown him, looked up, and the first thing he saw was Dawn curled up in the corner, crying. They made eye contact, and Gary saw something in her eyes. It was something that he had never seen in her eyes when she looked at him before. Fear.

Ashamed, Gary stood to his feet and ran out of the room as well, making sure not to go in the same direction that Barry had.

Only Ash and Dawn were left in the room, one crying, and one barely aware of what was going on. Once Gary had left, Dawn let loose, her soft cries transforming into complete sobs. Ash turned to Dawn and frowned.

"Don't cry... Dawn..." mumbled Ash weakly, his pupils dilating and un-dilating at random intervals.

He began to walk towards the sobbing bluenette, desperately wanting to console her, to stop her from crying. But halfway there, he collapsed, out cold.

* * *

May walked into class, half an hour late. Everyone was already there, listening to the lecture that Professor Rowan was giving, making sure to copy everything he wrote down on the white board. May scanned the room for a free seat and, much to her relief, found one of the two empty ones in the room. She walked to the seat, ignoring all the people that were staring at her. After learning of what Gary had done, she wasn't in the best of moods. She roughly placed her notebook on the table and plopped herself into her chair, her bad mood being made very obvious by her actions.

"Ahh, Greetings, Ms. Maple." said Professor Rowan, his intimidating black eyes glaring right into May's sapphire ones. "I'm glad you could join us. 31 minutes late."

May, unfazed by Professor Rowan's glare, answered him right back, maintaining the eye contact. "It's great to be here, Professor."

"Mhmm, I'm sure it is." replied Professor Rowan, turning back towards the white board. But before he could even finish writing a word, a knock was heard on the door. Professor Rowan nodded. "That must be the new exchange student. Chuck, could you please open the door for him?"

"Sure, Professor Rowan." said Chuck, the same Chuck that had fought Ash the day before. Chuck slid out of his seat and lazily walked over to the door. He opened it, and froze. The person he was seeing looked very familiar. Except they didn't at the same time. It confused him. His eyes narrowed, and he grit his teeth. _"Ketchum."_

May's eyes widened, because she was sure her superhuman hearing had heard Chuck whisper Ash's last name. But that wasn't possible, because she was in Advanced Calculus class, and that was a class only for those who were majoring in Mathematics. Ash was not majoring in that, which meant he couldn't possibly be at the door, yet she was absolutely positive Chuck had said his surname. She waited for whoever was at the door to reply, but they didn't.

"Is there a problem, Chuck?" asked Professor Rowan.

"...No." said Chuck quietly, walking back to his seat. "Sorry for disrupting the class."

"Apology accepted." said Professor Rowan, putting down his marker. He then turned towards the door way and gestured for the new student to enter the room. "Come on in, young man."

Everybody looked, waiting for the person to walk in. When they did, everyone simply looked at him, except for May. Her jaw didn't drop, but her mouth was definitely open. They looked exactly like Ash, but they didn't at the same time. He had all of Ash's features, down to the Z marks on the cheeks. The difference lay in the colors. He wasn't tan. He was pale. His hair wasn't raven black. It was vibrant blonde. His eyes weren't chocolate brown. They were sky blue. The Ash look-alike walked to Professor Rowan and shook his hand.

"Greetings young man, what is your name?" asked Professor Rowan.

"Haxs." said the student with a thick British accent.

"Haxs what?" asked Professor Rowan. "Do you have a last name?"

"Nah, just Haxs." said Haxs as he turned to the class. He may have been facing the class, but he was staring directly at one girl. May shivered as his gaze fell upon her, a hollow, soulless feeling radiating from it. He smiled, seeming to find amusement from May's discomfort. "Pleased to meet you all."

"Well Haxs, I believe there is an empty seat somewhere in here..." said Professor Rowan, looking around. "Ah! There's one right over there, next to Ms. Maple!"

* * *

**:)**

**Alright, we have Barry running off to God-knows-where. We have Gary running off to God-knows-where. We have Ash unconscious, and Dawn left in a heap of tears. And to top it all off, we have May, who has just been introduced to a creepy new kid, who bears a striking resemblance to her friend and crush, Ash! What could this mean?!**

**If you don't know who Haxs is, read his section on my profile. If you don't want to do that, I'll just tell you the basics about him. He's my OC.**

**Okay, that's all I've got! Bye!**

**~DarkSlash9**


	5. Dawn Motherfucking Berlitz

**Hi. I want to start this out by saying something that I should have said at the beginning of this story.**

**This story has many conflicting shippings. This story is probably being read by people with many different shipping preferences. Just know that not everyone will be pleased with the couples that I plan to end the story with.  
**

**Okay, last time in Pokemon: Divinus, a fight had broken out between Barry and Gary. Ash had broken it up, but collapsed after. Barry and Gary then left, leaving Dawn with an unconscious Ash! Meanwhile, May had went to class, where she met a strange person, who bore a striking resemblance to Ash! What could this mean?**

**But first...**

**Q&A.  
**

legendarytrainer123

Is Haxs the same guy from Pokemon Brotherhood in the same hospital room as Ash?

**Answer: Yes.**

**Okay, enjoy Chapter 5 of Pokemon: Divinus!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Dawn Motherfucking Berlitz

* * *

"Well Haxs, I believe there is an empty seat somewhere in here..." said Professor Rowan, looking around. "Ah! There's one right over there, next to Ms. Maple!"

May froze, and Haxs grinned. His teeth were pure white, his canines slightly sharper than the average human's.

"Ms. Maple, please raise your hand so Haxs can find you." ordered Professor Rowan.

May slowly rose her hand, though she didn't really need to, because Haxs had already begun walking towards her row. He took his time, allowing everyone to get a good look at him. A few people squinted a bit when they saw his features up close, because they were sure they had seen him before. But they hadn't. The person they were thinking of was Ash, not this new student.

The closer Haxs got to May, the odder and odder she began to feel.

_"What's up with this kid...?"_ thought May, nervously tapping her fingers on her table._ "It feels like a small part of me dies with each step he takes. And that creepy smile isn't very fun to look at either."_

Finally, Haxs arrived at his seat. He sat down and placed his books on the table, no longer paying May any mind. At first, May had thought that she was just overreacting; this was just a person that looked like Ash, and the odd feeling in her body was just her nerves running high. But as soon as the blonde doppelganger sat next to her, she knew something was wrong. Her eyelids immediately felt twice as heavy, and she did something she hadn't done once in the last 2 days. She yawned.

"Good lord, you look like a Hippowdon when you yawn." commented Haxs, a disgusted scowl on his face. "Twit."

May looked at Haxs, at a loss for words. Immediately following her unexpected yawn, her superhuman senses began to fade, and in a matter of seconds, they were gone.

"I'd appreciate it if you would stop gazing at me like that. You're looking at me like I've sucked your soul out. Though, I _have_ been told by quite a few that I have that effect on people..."

Haxs flashed what seemed like a knowing smirk at May, waiting for her to respond. But she couldn't. She couldn't really do anything, because too many thoughts were rushing in and out of her head. She found herself confused and slightly terrified of the boy sitting next to her, and she had only known him for about 2 minutes. She turned her head towards the front of the class room, staring at the numbers and calculations Professor Rowan was writing across the board. Her mind was running at a million miles per hour, and the speed was only increasing.

_"What is he?! Why am I sleepy now?! As soon as he sat next to me, the energy just drained out of me... It doesn't make any sense, because ever since the meteor, I haven't felt the need to sleep at all... yet here I am, struggling to stay awake! I... I don't understand... I have to tell everyone. There's something up with this guy, I just know it! My powers... they just, vanished. I feel normal again. He looks like an exact copy of Ash too... that can't be a coincidence! I need to show this guy to everyone, especially Dawn. If anyone could come up with an explanation, Dawn can!"_

May glanced at Haxs, and much to her horror, he was staring at her. His gaze was almost inescapable. It was in the eyes. They pierced deep into her soul, leaving a cold, empty feeling to swirl and grow inside, until she could no longer look at them. May looked back towards the front of the classroom, shivers rippling throughout her body. Even though she wasn't looking at him, she could feel his gaze still on her, threatening to swallow her whole if she dared to look at it again.

_"Those eyes..." _thought May, chewing her lip in nervousness. _"Those cold, blue eyes... wait a minute. Blue eyes?"_

Suddenly, May remembered something that made her eyebrows furrow. She remembered the hooded, blue-eyed person who had carried everyone's bodies away in the video found on Barry's phone. That person had blue eyes; ones that were the same shade of blue as the person next to her.

_"Could he be...?"_

At the most inopportune time, May's eyes began to close, sleep overtaking her. She had never felt so tired before, and all her efforts to stay awake were proving futile. It wasn't long before she lost consciousness, her head resting face down on the table in front of her...

...

...

"Hey. Wake up. Get up. *sigh* I swear to Queen Elizabeth, I always get stuck with this type of bullshit... WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

May's eyes burst open, her eyes darting around. She looked to her right, and saw that the lecture hall was completely empty, and the lights were off. The Sun's golden rays cracking through the windows was what allowed her to see. She turned to her left, and her body nearly jumped out of her skin. Towering over her was Haxs, and he didn't look too happy.

"Ah, I see the Snorlax has decided to wake up. Good, now I can leave this bloody place." muttered Haxs, picking up his books.

"What...?" asked May groggily. "What happened to the class? Where... is everyone?"

"You slept through the class, June. Everyone already left." replied Haxs. "And now, I shall do the same. Ta ta."

"My name is *yawn* May, not June."

"Oh spare me, they're both months, right? Get over yourself."

With his belongings in his hands, Haxs walked away, and as soon as he did, May felt revitalized. Her sleepiness instantly dispersed, and her superhuman senses immediately returned. The rush of getting her powers back reminded her of what she was thinking of before she fell asleep; showing Haxs to Dawn. May quickly gathered her things and stood. She walked towards Haxs, but as soon as she got within a 2 foot radius of him, her powers left her again. May paused, the abrupt sensation of losing her powers being uncomfortable enough to make her shudder. She stared at the back of Haxs' head, an irritated look in her eyes.

_"I don't know what his deal is, but whatever it is, he's no normal guy." _thought May, another yawn escaping her mouth. _"Hopefully Dawn will know what to do..."_

"Hey Haxs." called May, jogging towards Haxs, who was about to exit the lecture hall.

"What?" asked Haxs. "What could you possibly want from me, April?"

"May."

"Whatever."

"Anyway," growled May, restraining herself. Under normal circumstances, she would have slapped Haxs across the face for his rudeness, but something told her that it wasn't a good idea. "would you like to come hang out with me and my friends? You seem... interesting, and I have someone I think you should meet."

"Okay." answered Haxs quickly. A little _too _quickly in May's opinion.

"...Alright." answered May warily, walking ahead of Haxs. "Follow me."

Haxs did just that, following close behind May. May purposely began to walk a little faster than usual, setting a gap between the two of them. The further she got from him, the more her powers returned. She had already grown used to the powers, and preferred to have them on. But things became annoying, because every time she got far enough to get her powers back, he'd close the gap, mercilessly stripping her of them. And somehow, May could just feel that he knew exactly what he was doing, and he was gaining joy from it.

* * *

_"Don't cry... Dawn..."_

Ash's eyes slowly opened, bright light invading his eyesight. His vision was blurry, but he could tell where he was. He was in a room, in a bed. That was all he had the mental strength to decipher. He felt terrible. His head didn't just hurt; it was in agony. Pulsating pain was shooting through each and every nerve at the pace of a heartbeat. He felt dizzy, and could barely think clearly. He felt a cold sensation on his head, and with a large amount of effort, he raised his hand to his forehead. There was an ice-pack on it.

_"What... happened...?" _he thought, his hand returning to his side. He let out a confused sigh. _"How did I... fall asleep? I thought we couldn't... sleep anymore...?"_

"Ughh..." groaned Ash, closing his eyes.

"Oh, you're awake."

Ash's eyes opened again. He slowly turned his head to the left. He saw a couple things. He saw his studying desk and his TV, which meant that he was in his room. Sitting in his studying chair was Dawn, who was staring directly at him. Her hands were laid neatly on her lap, and the chair was facing Ash, which meant she must have been watching him. Her eyes were puffy and red. She had been crying. But she wore a genuine smile, in great contrast to the sadness in her eyes.

"Dawn..." said Ash tiredly.

"I was wondering when you'd regain consciousness..." she said, the small smile on her face fading away. Her mouth formed a straight line, neither a smile nor a frown. "You're concussed."

"I'm... what?" asked Ash. To him, it seemed like Dawn was speaking in a totally different language.

"You have a concussion." replied Dawn.

"A concussion..." repeated Ash, staring at the ceiling. "How... how did I get a concussion...? I don't... I don't remember anything..."

"Don't think too much. You need rest. I'll explain everything to you when you've recovered some more."

"No..." replied Ash, grabbing the ice-pack on his head. He took it off and threw it onto the floor. With all the effort and willpower he had, Ash sat up in his bed, his back resting on the headboard. The pain in his head began to intensify, but he didn't care. He turned to Dawn, who had a shocked look on her face. Though he was in no condition to do so, he smirked. "I've recovered enough..."

"No, you haven't." said Dawn worriedly, standing to her feet. "You only received the concussion a few hours ago. You're overexerting yourself."

Dawn quickly walked over to Ash's bed, a frown on her face. She put her hands on Ash's shoulders and pushed downwards, forcing him to lay back down. Ash simply let her do it, because she was right; he was doing too much. In the few seconds he had been sitting up, the pain in his head had become excruciating, and it only lessened when Dawn forced him back down. After she put Ash back into a laying position, she went back to her seat, a frown on her face. Ash frowned as well. Dawn really wasn't looking too well. She looked devoid of any emotion, as if someone had ripped away her joy. Feeling obligated to say something, Ash sighed.

"Dawn... I know I need rest, but I'm well enough for you to tell me what happened... you look like you've been crying..." said Ash slowly. "Tell me what's wrong..."

Ash looked at Dawn again, and he could tell that she was deciding whether or not to explain everything. Finally, she nodded, looking Ash in the eye. There was a pause before Dawn spoke; In that pause, she picked up Ash's study chair and placed it next to his bed, drastically decreasing the distance between the two. She took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

"How much do you remember?" she asked, staring at the floor.

"Well..." started Ash, staring at the ceiling. "I remember... I remember me, you, and May talking... and Gary was there too... but he wasn't talking. I think May wanted to use my phone to call Barry... After that, everything is blank."

"Okay... after that, we went to my room, and- oh, hold on, my phone just received a message from someone..." said Dawn, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out her phone and looked at the screen. "It's from May."

"What does it say?" asked Ash.

"It says... 'Hey Dawn. Where are you? I went to your room, but you're not there. I found someone who might know something about the meteor, and you have to meet them.'"

"..."

"What should I say?" asked Dawn, turning to Ash.

"Tell her you're in my room..." said Ash. "That _is _where you are, isn't it, nerd?"

Instead of the usual annoyed reaction to her nickname, Dawn quietly giggled. "Yeah, I guess so, Ass. But now that May's coming, It seems you'll have to wait til she arrives. I don't want to have to tell the story twice, so I'll just wait til both of you are here."

"Yeah..."

There were a few minutes of silence after that, but it wasn't long before it was broken by Ash.

"So..."

"So...?" asked Dawn.

"Let's talk, Dawn. My brain is feeling a little more functional now... I think I can participate in a full conversation."

"Okay... what would you like to talk about?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Mhmmm..."

"What about me?"

"I don't know... your love life I guess. You always ask May and I about what's going on between us, but you never really talk about any of _your_ crushes... Actually, you've never told me who you like at all... I'd say that's pretty unfair, considering I tell you _everything_. You probably know more secrets about myself than I do."

"Well, you've never asked, so-"

"I'm asking now."

Dawn hesitated. What was she going to say? She didn't like lying, but in this situation she felt she had to. The truth was that she was still trying to decide who she truly loved: Ash or Barry. At the moment, Ash was more in her favor because he hadn't gotten into a fight in her own room like Barry had. But she knew that Barry was the type to beat himself up over something like that, so being upset with him for it would do no good. He was probably punishing himself already somehow.

And then there was Ash. Ash was the one who tried to break up the fight. And when he had, he last thing he did before succumbing to his brain injury was try to console her. When she thought of these things, she felt a tingling sensation in her heart, but there was no way in hell that she'd tell Ash right then and there that she had the hots for him.

_"Ash can't know I like him... he and May are supposed to be together, and if I told him about my feelings, it would mess everything up... but does May truly deserve him? I mean, I was there for him when she broke his heart. I've been the one here for him all this time, helping him recover somewhat. What makes May qualified to have Ash? There were nights when I visited Ash to find him an emotional mess, and I was always his shoulder to cry on..."_

As Dawn thought of this, her hands began to ball into fists, and her expression hardened. But then, out of nowhere, she relaxed and sighed a sad sigh.

_"No, this isn't right. May's one of my dearest friends. I could never betray her like that. And besides, Ash loves her. Not me. I'm being selfish... I should be happy for them, not thinking of how I should be in her place... May cares about Ash too, and she didn't (and still doesn't) know that she broke his heart... I can't just-"  
_

"Um, Dawn? Are you going to say anything?"

"Sorry about that." said Dawn quietly. She purposely did not look at Ash. "But it should be obvious who I like... Barry."

"I guess it is pretty obvious... You two do flirt pretty often..." agreed Ash. "You know, you two would make a nice couple... Barry's a lucky guy."

"How so?" asked Dawn, Ash's comment piquing her interest.

"Any guy that would have someone like you in love with them is a lucky guy. You're smart (most of the time), cool, responsible, independent, and pretty. If Barry ever gets around to asking you out, I can bet it would be a decision he'd never regret."

"...You really think that highly of me?" asked Dawn, feeling both flattered and surprised. Her cheeks were as pink as a Slowpoke.

Ash tilted his head. "Why wouldn't I? I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it."

Dawn smiled, tears forming in her eyes. She leaned over and pulled Ash into a tight embrace, one in which he slowly but surely returned. He was pretty confused by Dawn's response, because Gary told her these kinds of things all the time, and she usually responded with a few words of thanks, but nothing else. But when _he_ had said it, she teared up and pulled him into a hug. In the end, Ash shrugged it off, deciding that she was already feeling pretty emotional, so his compliments were probably the boost needed to cheer her up.

After a few seconds of weeping on Ash's shoulder, Dawn removed herself from him and wiped the tears off her red cheeks, a smile on her face.

"Thanks Ash... you're a great guy. May's been a lucky girl ever since High School, because you're an amazing person too..." said Dawn. "You better make sure you get her this time. Don't miss your chance, Ass Ketchup."

"I won't." said Ash with a smile. "Nerd."

"So what's your plan?" asked Dawn, sitting back in her chair. "Are you going to woo her with something fancy or exotic?"

"No, I'm going to..." Ash trailed off, his eyes suddenly looking straight at the door. Dawn looked at him, and he gestured for her to stay quiet. He seemed to be hearing something, and when Dawn concentrated, she could hear it too. It was two voices, one familiar, one new. The familiar one was May, and the other one had a British accent. Ash looked at Dawn. "That must be the person she wants us to meet."

"Most likely." replied Dawn. "He doesn't sound very friendly though. They're too far away to hear exactly what they're saying, but May sounds aggravated. However, May does get aggravated quite easily sometimes... Her temper is nowhere near as unstable as that Misty girl from the party, but it's nothing to scoff at."

"Well whoever this guy is, he sounds ugly." said Ash.

"Shh, they're here." hushed Dawn.

Right after Dawn had spoken, two knocks were heard on the door.

"It's open." called Ash, a little bit louder than his aching head could withstand. He immediately grabbed his head, groaning in pain. Dawn picked up the ice-pack that he had taken off and put it back on his head. "Thanks Dawn..."

The door opened, and May walked in. She looked a tired mess. The first thing she saw was Ash tucked in his bed, an ice-pack on his forehead. That worried her. Then she saw Dawn sitting on a chair, beside Ash, with barely any room between them. That confused her. And then she realized that it was only Ash and Dawn in the room; no one else. That bothered her.

Instead of speaking, Ash opted to greet May with the wave of a hand instead. May saw Ash wave and looked at him.

"Um, hey guys..." said May with a straight face. "You didn't tell me it was just the... two of you."

"Hey May..." said Dawn nervously, slowly scooting away from Ash. "What's up?"

"A lot." replied May, her expression darkening. "I brought someone you have to meet. But before I invite him in, can you tell me what happened to Ash? Why is he bedridden?"

"I'll explain everything right now..." said Dawn, looking at Ash. "Ash, you listen up as well. I'm going to explain what happened."

Ash nodded his head.

"So," started Dawn. "we all went to my room, where we found Barry acting funny. He began to interrogate Gary, and all of a sudden, Gary tried attack Barry, trying to take my laptop from him. But before he could get it, you got in the way of them both, Ash. You then pinned Gary to the floor, giving Barry an opportunity to read the news article he found on the laptop. But Barry couldn't bring himself to do it, so he gave the laptop to May. May read it, handed me the laptop, and then left for class."

"Wow..." said Ash. He wasn't surprised because of what happened, he was overwhelmed with how fast Dawn was talking. In his current state, he could barely keep up.

"I'm not done. May, this is what happened after you left. After some persuasion, I got Gary to admit what he had done. But he gave me a very vague, unspecific version. That enraged Barry, causing him to go on a rant about all of Gary's imperfections and faults. In that rant, he revealed that Gary didn't just 'get into a fight' but a complete brawl with 6 men, leaving many of them men with serious injuries. After that, I told Barry to leave. But right as Barry turned to leave, Gary, using a completely unnecessary amount of force, pushed Ash off of him. Ash went flying head first into my wall, and when he hit it, he was dazed. Gary went and attacked Barry. At this point, I was crying my eyes out. I went to Ash and begged him to stop the fight. Ash shakily got up and did just that, but passed out right after. Gary left, and so did Barry. After cleaning up my room, I tended to Ash. Using my medical knowledge, I was able to diagnose him with a moderate concussion. After cleaning him up a bit, I carried him all the way here, put him in his bed, and applied some ice to his head. He just woke up about half an hour ago."

"Wow..." said both Ash and May this time.

"You _carried _me here?" asked Ash, shocked at Dawn's strength. "I weigh... a lot."

"It wasn't easy." droned Dawn. "It wasn't easy at all."

"Man, I always miss all the good stuff..." grumbled May. "Alright, well what are we going to do about Gary? It looks like we have to pull him out of the fire again."

"If only it were that easy..." sighed Ash. "May, Kanto's criminal justice system is what I study, and believe me when I say that this is way beyond our capabilities. This isn't some grumpy old guy that he pranked, or some big buff body-builder that he accidentally pushed... This is the police force, and they're after him because he committed a crime... What can we possibly do to help? The only thing we can do is say good things about him if we're asked to be interviewed... Other than, he's really on his own this time."

"There has to be something we can do..." muttered May.

"I agree with May." said Dawn. "But I also agree with Ash... I feel like there must be some way to help him, but at the same time I feel that this something we can't affect..."

"If you two really think there's something we can do, then we can talk about this later. But right now, I'm curious about this person May brought to meet us." said Ash.

"Oh, yeah. I'm going to bring him in now. Act natural." said May seriously. She headed towards the door, her head poking into the hallway. "Alright, come in."

"Don't tell me what to do, I live by my own rules." spat Haxs as he entered the room, his ever-present scowl on his face.

Dawn and Ash immediately felt that something was off. Both of them, at the same time, felt a eerie chill enter the room, but neither of them spoke of it. But May, who was watching Ash and Dawn for any reactions, saw both of them do something. Ash's eyes narrowed, while Dawn's eyes widened slightly. May looked at both of them and nodded her head reassuringly. Meanwhile, Haxs nonchalantly walked into the center of the room, examining his surroundings. He looked at everything worth looking at, and that included Dawn and Ash. He then turned to May and snorted. "You only have 2 friends? You didn't tell me you were an undesirable peasant."

"I'm not an undesirable peasant." growled May, her hands balling into fists. "These are just a few of my friends. The boy is Ash, and the girl is Dawn."

Ash and Dawn awkwardly waved at Haxs, both of them thinking the same thing. He looked exactly like Ash. Their faces were literally identical, the only difference being the colors of skin and hair. But due to his concussion, Ash had somewhat of a subdued response. He simply stared at Haxs, his eyes wide and his mouth shut. Dawn on the other hand, was in quite the dilemma. She had looked him in the eye, and he looked back, trapping her in that icy, terrifying gaze that May had already associated him with. Deciding to have mercy on Dawn, Haxs walked up to her, a smug smile replacing his venomous scowl.

"Dawn is it?" asked Haxs, crossing his arms.

May watched closely when Haxs approached Dawn. She was waiting for anything, anything that would reveal that Dawn had lost her powers too. She didn't have to wait long though, because as soon as Haxs got to Dawn, the bluenette had shuddered slightly. Her eyes immediately lost their energy, and she looked like she'd fall asleep any minute. May sighed.

_"So I'm not imagining things..." _thought May.

"Helloooo?" asked Haxs, snapping his fingers in front of Dawn. "I asked you a question."

"H-huh?" asked Dawn, seeming to have fallen asleep while standing. "What?"

"I asked if your name was Dawn; is it?"

"But May already told you her name was Dawn." said Ash, glaring at Haxs. He never did like people that were rude to his friends. "What's the point in asking her again?"

"Oh bloody hell, forgive me, I wasn't aware that you were part of this conversation. Oh wait, that's right; you're not. Mind your own business, twit." retorted Haxs, casting his usual glare onto Ash. But unlike the girls, Ash was not affected by it. He just responded with his own wolf-stare, one just as cold and ominous as Haxs'. Haxs snorted in amusement and turned back to Dawn. "Anyway, back to my question. Your name is Dawn, yes?"

"Yeah..." yawned Dawn. Ash raised an eyebrow when Dawn yawned. As soon as she had finished yawning, Dawn's eyebrows furrowed. She looked towards the floor, a hand cupping her chin. May smiled; as expected, the gears in Dawn's head immediately started turning, thinking of possible hypotheses and theories.

Meanwhile, Haxs had just finished forming his opinion on Dawn's name.

"Hmm, hideous name... but..." said Haxs, looking Dawn up and down. He nodded. "well endowed. You look more like an Eve to me. So that's what I'll call you."

"Thanks..." replied Dawn distantly, about 2% of her attention on Haxs. The other 98% was hard at work.

"Pleasure's all mine..." said Haxs, still examining Dawn. He began to walk around her, examining every feature. Then when he had finally walked a full circle around her, he looked right into her eyes. This snapped her out of her deep thought session. Haxs smirked a dark smirk, a smirk only a trouble-maker would wear. "Hm, blue hair, eh? Quite the rarity. Forgive me, but I just have to know... does the carpet match the drapes?"

...

It was as if time had stood completely still, allowing May and Ash to register what their ears had just heard. May and Ash both froze, wondering if they had really heard what they thought they did. They looked at each other, then to Haxs and Dawn, then back to each other. They both mouthed the same words to each other: _"What the fuck?". _Then, they both looked at Dawn, examining her face for any signs of shock, rage, embarrassment or any combination of the three. But Dawn didn't seem bothered by the question in the least. In fact, she seemed more puzzled if anything.

"That's a peculiar question..." said Dawn, looking around. Haxs, May, and Ash all raised an eyebrow, waiting for Dawn to continue speaking. After spending a few seconds looking around, she turned back to Haxs, an innocently confused look on her face. "Ash's dorm has neither carpets nor drapes."

Ash facepalmed, while May sighed in relief.

_"Dawn... so smart... yet so **not** smart..." _thought May.

Haxs on the other hand, looked at Dawn as if she were stupid.

"Hmph, too innocent. That's minus another point." said Haxs to himself.

"Minus a point?" asked Dawn.

"Hmmmyes, since my arrival, I have put oodles of effort into observing the females of this land. So far the most beautiful female I've observed is Cynthia Shirona, a celebrity. Using her as a base, I have come up with a point system to grade the beauty of each female I see. It is a scale from 1 to 10, 10 points being Cynthia, and 1 point being your brown-haired friend June over there. I'd say you're a 5 at best."

Haxs must have said something worth taking note of, because halfway through his explanation, Dawn suddenly fell back into deep thought, ignoring the second half of Haxs' speech. But Ash and May had heard all of it, and neither of them were too pleased.

"Get out of my room." droned Ash, glaring daggers at Haxs.

"What?" asked Haxs.

"Get out..." said Ash, pausing. "...of my room."

"Exactly what have I done to receive such an abrupt dismissal? I'm merely speaking my mind, twit."

"Well, your mind isn't welcome here." spat Ash. "You're annoying, and I don't like annoying people in my dorm. And your 'point system' is stupid."

"Me? Annoying? Why you pompous little knobhead... I ought to knock you right in the bollocks... but fine, I'll leave. You all are cramping my style anyway. June is hideous, Eve is naive, and _you_," he said, pointing to Ash. "You're just a prick."

"Takes one to know one." retorted Ash.

"Oooh, where ever did you get that extremely over-used comeback from? A fortune cookie?" snorted Haxs.

"Oooh, where ever did you get that extremely stupid shirt from? Idiots R Us?" growled Ash.

Haxs glared at Ash. "...Ugly wanker. I'll have you know this is a designer shirt."

Ash glared right back. "...Ugly bastard. I'll have you know it's a shitty shirt."

May and Dawn simply watched as Ash and Haxs hurled insults at each other back and forth. It was like a long, entertaining game of Tennis, with both young men returning each insult with one more offensive and brutal as the last. Finally, when they had both run out of steam, they simply stared at each other, growling.

"Y'know what? Fuck you." said both Ash and Haxs, their newly acquired hatred for each other made clear in their voices.

With that, Haxs turned around and stomped his way towards the door. Before departing, he turned to Ash, May, and Dawn, his icy gaze being cast on all of them. He then turned back around, and left. No one saw it, but he had a smirk on his face as he walked through the door. After he walked out the door, May peeped her head out into the hallway, making sure Haxs was leaving. When she saw him enter the elevator, she closed the door.

"So..." she said, walking back into the main section of the room. "Do you guys hate him? I hate him."

"Oh yeah, I hate him alright." growled Ash, crossing his arms. "Why did you even bring him here in the first place? You said he had something to do with the meteor, but all he did was come and insult us."

"Because, he _does _ have something to do with the meteor." spoke Dawn scientifically. "If my thoughts are correct, he has _a lot _to do with the meteor."

"Perfect, I was hoping you'd come up with some theories while you spoke with him." said May, rubbing her hands together.

"Mhmm... May, I'm assuming you brought him here because of the fluctuation and eventual termination of our powers that his presence causes. Is my assumption correct?"

May's head slowly tilted, a lost look on her face. "If you could just rephrase that question in, y'know, English..."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll use more colloquial language."

"Colloquial...?"

"I swear, you need to purchase yourself a dictionary as soon as possible..." grumbled Dawn. "*sigh* Did you bring Haxs here because of the weird stuff his presence does to our powers?"

"Oh. Yeah, that's why." replied May.

"What are you two talking about?" asked Ash, an eyebrow raised. "I did feel a little strange when he entered, but that's it. The only other thing I felt was irritation, and that's because every sentence he said made me want to throw him off a building."

"It's because he never got close enough to you for the first level of his ability to affect you." explained Dawn.

"First leve-"

"Perhaps I should just explain my full theory." said Dawn, cutting Ash off. "Alright, as soon as he got close to me, my powers faded and then disappeared. Apparently, May has experienced the same phenomenon. When he entered the room, an eerie, icy chill was felt. I'm assuming that was the second level. Think of the levels as the lanes on a track. There's the first lane, which is the innermost one, the second lane, which is the next one, and so on so forth. Now, from what I gathered in my short time of observation, Haxs' ability seems to only have 2 levels. There's the second - and outermost - level, which is the one we felt when he entered the room. That seems to have quite the range, but all it seems to do is give us an uncomfortable feeling. But then there's the first - and innermost - level, which is different. It only occupies what felt like a 2-foot radius around him. The effects of the first level are much more noticeable; it shuts down our Divinus powers."

"Dawn... about that name... Divinus..." said May slowly, an apologetic look on her face. "I don't think it's going to catch on. It just doesn't roll off the tongue very well. Why not just call them superhuman powers instead?"

Dawn glared at May and looked the other way, her arms crossed. "Fine. The first level of his ability shuts down our _superhuman _powers."

"Better. So, what do you think his connection with the meteor is? Did you come up with any possibilities on that?" asked May. "I know you didn't really have much time to observe him but-"

"No need to worry, I've already come up with a theory on that as well." said Dawn, silencing May. At that, May decided to just sit down at the end of Ash's bed and stop talking. "Well, first of all, he's foreign."

"Yeah, he had a British accent." added Ash, wanting to contribute to the conversation somehow. But his concussion was slowing him down, so he could barely keep up with the conversation.

"Yes Ash, he had a British accent. But that's not a reliable piece of information. He could have easily been faking it. But what is reliable, however, is his word choice. From the way he spoke, he seemed more than just foreign to our area. He seemed straight out foreign to everything. While many men do judge women on a scale from 1 to 10, he did it in a different manner. He judged his scale on a base, Cynthia Shirona... that's a fairly scientific way of going about it. And he must not have had the opportunity to see many women in the past, since Cynthia Shirona is not in any way, shape, or form a 10 out of 10. Also, he began his scale when he arrived in this 'land'. Okay, this land is Kanto. Cynthia Shirona lives all the way in Sinnoh, hundreds of miles away. When he said this 'land', he didn't mean Kanto. He meant something a lot larger, since Cynthia Shirona is nowhere near Kanto at the moment. That means that he's from far, far away. But I have a question. Is he a new student, May? Or has he always been here?"

"New."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. He and the meteor are definitely connected." said Dawn, nodding her head. "But how they're connected... there's still way too many possibilities."

"I figured he had something to do with the meteor... but I have a piece of info you probably didn't think of, Dawn." said May as she stood up, a confident smile on her face.

"You think he's the one that carried us away from the crash site, since his eyes are the same shade of blue as the person in the video's?" said Dawn, using the tone of a statement rather than a question.

May sat down and nodded. Perhaps Dawn's occasional moments of cluelessness had caused May to forget just how smart the blue-haired scholar really was. At most times, Dawn's thought processes were already several steps ahead of everyone else's.

"You two really think _he _was the one?" asked Ash.

"It's a possibility." said Dawn, sitting back down on Ash's study chair.

"So what do we do with him? Interrogate him?"

"Well..." said Dawn, staring off into the distance. "I think we should keep a close eye on him for a while. We shouldn't interrogate him yet, as there's still a large chance that he _wasn't_ the one in the video. I'm aware that his personality is... irritating, but until we gather more data on him, we have to keep him around us."

"Oh joy..." murmured Ash, placing his extra pillow over his face.

"Heh, just wait Ash. I doubt you're the only one that's not going to like Dawn's idea..." chuckled May. "If you already don't like him, then it's guaranteed that Barry is going to _hate _him."

* * *

Barry walked through the halls of Ash's dorm building, a frown on his face. He wasn't angry anymore; he was never one to dwell on anger for too long. But he was still upset. He had been so angry earlier that he hadn't even paid any mind to Dawn's tears. She had cried, and whether it was for him or not, it was his fault. it had been a few hours since the fight, and it was all he had been thinking of since. When the guilt had become too much, (and it didn't take very long for it to become so) the blonde decided that he had to do something about it. She deserved an apology.

He had gone to Dawn's room, but was not let in. Either it was empty, or Dawn didn't let him in. Hoping it was the former, Barry decided to go to Ash for advice. To Barry, Ash seemed like the best person to talk to. He couldn't talk to Gary, because 1) he didn't know where Gary went, and 2) Gary hated his guts. Dawn wasn't an option either, since Dawn was the one he wanted to apologize to. May wouldn't work either, because May didn't seem like the type to give good advice.

So there he was, walking through the halls of Ash's dorm building...

_"Alright... I'll go to Ash, and he'll know what to do. He usually seems to know what to do. He's closer to Dawn than I am too, so he probably knows what I should say. Oh man, I hope I haven't permanently screwed everything up... I like Dawn, a lot. But she's such an enigma sometimes. Like, sometimes she flirts with me... but sometimes she's flirting with Ash, who doesn't seem to notice any girl that's not May... And then there's that unwavering care she has for Gary. What was up with her when I told Gary off? She stopped me, and she looked more angry at me than she did at Gary. I'm not the one who beat up 6 guys... Maybe she doesn't really like me at all... Maybe I'm in over my head. That kiss on the cheek she gave me was definitely a just a friendly gesture. I mean, why would she like a guy like me anyway? I'm so weird. Gary and Ash... I can't compete with them, can I? She cares so much about Gary... and then there's Ash, who's unknowingly the target of 99.9% of the girls on this campus."  
_

Barry had found himself staring at the floor, his eyes void of any of the fiery excitement that they usually had. He looked up, and the first thing he saw didn't make him feel any better. It was a couple, the boy with blue hair and the girl with blonde. They looked like him and Dawn, except the opposite gender. They were holding hands, and they looked absolutely lost in each other's eyes.

"Oh Lucas..." giggled the girl, adjusting her glasses. "I love you... you're the best boyfriend ever."

"I love you more, Bianca..." said Lucas suavely. "Happy 1 year anniversary babe..."

The couple walked past Barry, who was staring at them with sad, wistful eyes. But Barry had stared for too long, because they had noticed. Bianca frowned.

"Um, can we help you? You're staring." she said, her tone indifferent.

"Yeah, what do you want, _Barry?"_ spat Lucas.

"N-nothing..." muttered Barry quietly, walking away. "Sorry for bothering you..."

"You know him?" asked Bianca, looking up at Lucas.

"Yeah, I do." replied Lucas. "He's really annoying. Just stay away from him and you won't catch the weird."

Bianca laughed at her boyfriend's statement, and the two walked away. But Barry didn't laugh. He just kept on walking, his hair casting a shadow over his eyes. He decided not to think anymore, because he was at the point that hearing his own voice would just make him sadder. He stuffed his hands in his pocket, his hands balled into fists. He remained like that, walking in silence, until an odd feeling overtook him. He looked up, and exiting the elevator, he saw Ash. But it wasn't Ash. Ash didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes.

* * *

"So, what are going to do about Ash's concussion?" asked May, aiming a worried glance at Ash. Ash looked right back, and May quickly looked away, blushing. "I'm just asking because... because him having a concussion would really get in the way of his classes and stuff."

"Mhmm, of course." retorted Dawn, a smug smile on her face. Besides studying, teasing May was one of Dawn's favorite hobbies. "Just like the only reason you're wearing his sweatshirt is becaus-"

Just then, Ash's door burst open, a person with blonde hair abruptly entering. At the sight of blonde hair, Dawn, Ash, and May assumed that it was Haxs. But as soon as they saw the person's eyes, they relaxed a little. Instead of cold, blue eyes, the person had fiery, orange eyes. On his face were a few band-aids covering the cuts he got from the fight earlier.

"Guys!" shouted Barry frantically, a panicked look on his face. "You won't believe what just happened!"

"What happened Barry? And thanks for knocking." said Ash sarcastically.

"Sorry for bursting in, but something crazy just happened!" apologized Barry. "I was just on my way here to um... say hello, when I passed this guy that looked _exactly _like Ash. Except he didn't! He had all of Ash's features, but different colors! So I walked past him, and for a few seconds, my powers just shut off! Like, they were _gone! _And to top it all off, he had a creepy smile on his face when it happened! I'm freaking out guys! I'm freaking the fuck out!"

"Yes, we can tell." said May casually. "That guy you saw was our new... 'friend' Haxs."

"Haxs?" asked Barry. "You guys know him?"

"Yeah, he's in my Advanced Calculus class. And don't worry, the same thing happened to us when we met him. We've already decided to keep an eye on him."

"Oh... well... nevermind then..." said Barry. "I'll just um... be going then..."

"No, you won't." said Dawn. Barry froze, his heart pounding at a million beats per second. "Barry, I highly doubt you came here just to say hello. What did you really come here for?"

"*sigh* I came to talk to Ash."

"About what?" asked Ash.

"Stuff." said Barry vaguely.

"Okay, let's talk."

"I wanted to talk in private..."

"Oh. Then talk to me later okay? Just know that _you_ have to come to _me_, because I might forget with this concussion screwing with my head."

"You have a concussion?!" exclaimed Barry, his eyes wide. "How?!"

"When Gary pushed him off so he could go attack you." said Dawn quietly.

"Oh..." said Barry lowly. "Sorry Ash. I guess you could say that it's my fault. I should have handled the situation better... While on the topic, I guess I'll just apologize to you too Dawn. I'm sorry for going off on Gary like that, and I'm sorry for getting into a fight with him in your room. It was wrong, and I shouldn't have said the things I said to Gary either. I know how much you care about him, and I know that it probably hurt you to see me say what I said to hi-"

"It's okay Barry... you're just overreacting again..." sighed Dawn. "Don't worry about it. And I care about all of you the same, so don't go thinking that you're not as important to me as Gary is. And what you had said earlier wasn't wrong. Gary's not perfect at all, he's far from it. But as his friends, it's our job to be there for him, no matter what. I know you and him don't have the best relationship, but-"

"Yeah, yeah, I understand. Thanks Dawn..." said Barry, his frown slowly turning back into his hyperactive smile. "I guess I do overreact a lot."

"You do." said everyone else.

Barry frowned.

"Well I'm just going to have a seat then..." said Barry quietly, sitting floor. "So, what were you guys talking about before I barged in?"

"We were talking about what we're going to do about Ash." said May. "He's concussed..."

"Well, I've checked everything out, and his concussion is only a moderate one. Though it would be best to take him to a hospital, it's obvious that we can't do that. The doctors would surely notice that his body is different from the average human's, and our cover would be blown. He has to stay in bed for a while, no loud sounds, no bright lights, no video games..." Dawn took a deep breath. _"No matter what way I word this, I can just tell it's not going to be received well..."_

"What else can't he do?" asked Barry.

Dawn waited a second before answering, trying to arrange her words in the best way she could.

"He can't be left alone." she said, her face straight. "He has to be monitored for a couple days, just so he's not alone if anything bad happens to him. Things such as seizures, sudden and repeated vomiting... those are red flags in the medical field... I need to stay with him for a couple of days, just to make sure he's okay."

_"What?"_ asked both Barry and May, in the same tone.

"Why?" asked May, clearly more upset than Barry was. "Why do _you_ have to be the one to stay with him?"

"Because, I'm the one that's most eligible to do it." said Dawn calmly. "May, you're majoring in Mathematics. Barry, you're majoring in Astronomy. Gary's majoring in Engineering, and Ash in Criminal Justice. I'm majoring in _Nursing. _I am by far the most qualified to give him the help he needs. That's the one and only reason why I'm the one who's doing it."

"But-"

"May," said Ash, everyone's words intensifying his headache. "It's alright. Dawn's just trying to help me get better and make sure I don't keel over. She's not going to do anything to me."

"Th-that's not why I'm upset!" stuttered May defensively, blush on her cheeks. "It's just that... that..."

"May, I'm just watching over him for 3 to 4 days. All I'm going to do is bring my laptop, some textbooks, a sleeping bag, and a some pajamas. That's it. It's mostly just going to be me studying in the corner, helping Ash whenever he needs it. And it's not like it's just going to be Ash and I, alone at all times. You're free to enter Ash's room whenever. If you feel that there's something suspicious going on, just come unannounced."

"But... but... but..."

"May, just drop it... Dawn's right." muttered Barry in an odd tone. "I'm not exactly jumping for joy either, but in the end, Dawn really is the best person for the job. Don't worry, she won't pounce on your boyfriend. She's your best friend, don't you trust her?"

At this point, Ash had completely buried his face in his pillows and blankets.

"I trust her... H-hey! He's not my boyfriend!" shouted May.

"Then why are you so flustered over this?" asked Barry. "Take a chill pill."

"Fine... I'll take a 'chill pill'..." said May, grouchily making her way towards the door. "If any of you need me, I'll be in my dorm."

Barry and Dawn watched May leave, and after that, there was silence. But after a few seconds, Barry stood up as well.

"I kinda have to leave too. I have a class soon." said Barry, stretching. "I'll be back later though."

"Okay, bye Barry." said Dawn, picking up one of Ash's textbooks. She opened it and began to read. "Just leave Ash's door unlocked so you can re-enter when you get back."

"As you wish." said Barry. He then walked over to Ash, and removed the pillows and covers off his face, revealing a scowling, raven-haired student. Barry grinned. "Looks like May's really gotten protective over you, huh?"

"Shut it, Barry." retorted Ash.

"Don't get too mad, or your head might explode." laughed Barry, walking out of the room.

With Barry gone, it was only Ash and Dawn in the room. While Dawn seemed to be pretty absorbed in Ash's textbook, Ash seemed to be pretty absorbed in his own thoughts. Barry was right, May was being very possessive and protective. But he understood where she was coming from, because he was sure he'd feel the same way if Gary decided to live with May for a few days. But Ash was pretty indifferent when it came to Dawn staying with him. He knew they were just friends, and that nothing would happen. But no more than a minute after Barry left, Dawn closed Ash's textbook and threw it across the room. Hard. Needless to say, Ash was pretty shocked.

"Umm... are you okay?" asked Ash.

"No!" shouted Dawn angrily. "I _hate_ these powers!"

"D-do you want to talk about it? And please stop yelling, brain hurts."

"Oh, sorry. But yes, I want to talk about it. We haven't even had these stupid abilities for 3 full days, and they're already tearing our group apart. Just 2 nights ago we were all at that party, having fun, dancing, and most of all, enjoying each other's company. Where are we now? Gary's in trouble with the law, Barry was attacked by Gary, you have a concussion, and May is upset with me! Everything's changed in a matter of 60 hours!"

"Dawn... I know what you mean, but I think Barry's not the only one who overreacts. You're overreacting too. Yes, we've all hit some turbulence since we got the powers, but what do you expect? You didn't seriously expect life to just go on after such a big change, did you? This is all just part of the transition. Don't worry, in a week or two, everything will be back to normal."

"Easy for you to say, Ketchup..."

"Listen, you need to relax a bit. Like I said, you're overreacting."

"Fine, even if I am, there's still one thing that I'm _not_ overreacting about."

"That being...?"

"Gary."

* * *

Gary walked into his apartment building, making sure to take the back entrance. His hood was on, and a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes. His lips were locked in a permanently indifferent line, absolutely no chances of a smile or frown taking over. Once inside his building, he took the stairs, taking a second to gaze all the way up to the 7th floor. He took his time, walking up each step at slow, leisurely pace. His mind was full of troubles, yet it was oddly calm. He felt hollow on the inside, and behind the shaded lenses of his sunglasses, his eyes showed it. He felt void of all emotion; just an empty shell of the dark, cocky prankster that he used to be.

He had reached the 7th floor.

Gary opened the door and entered the hallway, pulling his keys out of his pocket. When he arrived at his door, he inserted the key into the lock, and turned it. As usual, the door creaked open. He walked in, and sighed.

"Gramps. I'm home." he said quietly.

There was no answer. Gary showed his first sign of emotion since the fight with Barry; a raised eyebrow. He walked to his grandfather's room, and knocked on the door. No answer. Gary then opened the door, to see his grandfather's bed empty. He froze. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at the time. It was 12:43. His grandfather had already left for his surgery. 43 minutes ago.

Gary walked over to his grandfather's bed and sat on it. His head was buried in his hands, but he was not crying. He just sat there, wanting to cry, but finding no tears available to do so. He remained like that, until he heard someone enter the room. He looked up, unreasonably hoping it was his grandfather. But of course, that was impossible. It was Umbreon who had walked in, it's big red eyes glowing in the near darkness of Professor Oak's room. In it's mouth was a little note.

"Umbreon, come." commanded Gary monotonously.

Umbreon listened to Gary's command, trotting over to its owner. It placed the note by Gary's feet, and hung around, waiting for it's head to be pet. Umbreon received no such reward. Hurt, the animal whimpered and left the room. Gary picked up the note left by Umbreon, unfolded it, and began to read. It was in Professor Oak's handwriting.

_"Hello Gary. Well, I'm off to the hospital to get my surgery. I thought you'd still be here when it was time for me to leave, but I'm old, and my memory is foggy. You're not here, so you're probably in class. I really wanted you to be here, but I know, you can't miss your classes. The surgery should be fully complete around 5 o'clock, but of course, I won't be back from the hospital for a few days. Take care of yourself, okay?_

_Goodbye,_

_Grandpa."_

Gary folded the note and put it in his pocket. He walked out of Professor Oak's room, and out of his apartment too. He walked all the way back to the stairwell, and instead of going down the stairs, he went up. The building had 16 floors. He had made his mind up on how to solve his problems on the walk back to his apartment, and he was ready to put his plan into action.

He walked up the stairs. He was wanted by the police. He had reached the 8th floor of the building.

His walk turned into a jog. Dawn didn't love him like he loved her. He had reached the 10th floor of the building.

His jog turned into a run. After what he had done, Dawn probably hated him. He had reached the 13th floor of the building.

His run turned into an all-out sprint. He wasn't there for his grandfather earlier. He had reached the 16th floor of the building.

He saw himself as a burden to everyone. He drank too much alcohol. He caused too much trouble. He was always causing someone to worry. The cops were after him. It was only a matter of time til they'd find him and lock him up. His friends were probably worried about him, especially Dawn. He had been angry at Barry before, but in the end, everything Barry had said was true. Everything.

So that's why, at the roof of the 16-floor apartment building, his sprint turned into a jump.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm bumping this story up to an M rating. **

**This chapter wasn't very action-y. I know. But, guess what? This chapter is the official end of what I call the "Introduction Phase." I know, talk about a slow start. Starting next chapter, a lot more things will happen, and everyone will start branching out and doing their own things with their powers. Next chapter,** **a new power will be discovered, but by who? The next chapter will introduce a new mystery/antagonist for Ash, May, Dawn, and Barry to unravel, one that could be closely intertwined with the mystery they're already working on; Haxs.  
**

**So basically, the next chapter is going to be pretty damn awesome, and a lot better than this one. I know, because I've already finished planning it! :P**

**What is Gary doing?!**

**Will May catch Ash and Dawn doing something bad?**

**What new power will #$#*&#%# discover?**

**Find out in the next super-powered chapter of Pokemon: Divinus!**

**~DarkSlash9**


	6. Sky

**Hi everyone. Okay, last time on Pokemon: Divinus, May had introduced Ash and Dawn to Haxs, a strange new student who had a striking resemblance to Ash. After discussing what Haxs' presence did to their powers, Dawn had decided to spend a week with Ash to help him recover, much to May's dismay. But that wasn't the only thing that happened; Gary jumped off a building! What's going to happen next? Read on...  
**

**Q&A:**

pokemonlover100

Anyway since I read your first story I wanted to ask: how did you come up with your OC? ( I already forgot how to spell his name -_-) did you like base him off of an existing character? I'm just curious.

**Answer: He's based off of two characters. The 9-Tails from Naruto, and Hollow Ichigo from Bleach.**

Asher Downey

My question is: any possibility that more anime characters will come in? Like for example, Brock, Trip, Cilan, Cress, Chili, Serena, Iris, Clemont, and maybe some villains?

**Answer: Yes, I've got a few more characters that'll enter the story.**

Guest

Question: how long do you expect this story to be? Just a rough estimate plz dood! Keep up the good work!

**Answer: From the start, I've planned it to be 20 chapters, and so far, it still looks like it'll be just that.**

Titan034

I'm wondering will Ash get any special abilities that no one else has since he was more "affected" by the meteor than the others? i.e getting stabbed but being okay?

**Answer: All I'll say is that there IS a significance in Ash's stabbing. There was a reason, but it shall remain a mystery for now.**

PolarDawn

Alright, so I know this may not directly relate to this fic, but have you ever considered writing Leaf into a story? She's become one of my favorite characters, and I'd LOVE to see you write her at some point.

**Answer: I don't know... I've realized that I do tend to use the same few characters in all my stories, so I'll make sure to add some different characters when my next story rolls around. I'll make sure Leaf is one of them.**

**Okay, enjoy Chapter 6 of Pokemon: Divinus!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pokemon.**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Sky

* * *

_"Dear Diary,  
_

_Well, today's the day. Ash is making a steady recovery, and Dawn's finally leaving his room, after A FULL WEEK. She said she was only going to be there 3 to 4 days, but whoop-de-doo, she ended up spending 7 days there. I'm glad she's getting out today, because I'm not sure if my nerves can handle another day of Dawn sleeping in the same room as Ash. Don't get me wrong, I totally, 100% trust Dawn. She's been by BFF for tons of years. But sometimes, I can't help but feel inferior to her. She's smarter than me, prettier than me, and definitely curvier than me. She has the complete hourglass figure -_-... but above all else, she's closer to Ash than I am. Everyone kept asking why I was so against Dawn staying with Ash. Well, it's because I'm terrified of the possibility that Ash will end up noticing all her qualities that I don't have... and fall in love with her. It's not impossible. She's already closer to Ash than I am. In a single week he could have fallen head over heels for Dawn._

_But I should probably move onto a different topic; I only have a few minutes to write, and I don't want to spend them all writing about that. Aside from Ash and Dawn, there's something else that's been on all our minds. Gary. None of us have heard from him in the past week. He hasn't been picking up any phone calls, and he hasn't answered our texts. Barry and I even went to his apartment, but when we knocked on the door, nobody answered. The police haven't caught him yet, because the local news says they're still looking for him. It's really bothering everyone, and we're all going to search for him today. That's why I only have a few minutes to write, we're all going to meet up in a few minutes and start looking.  
_

_Last but not least, Haxs. We've been keeping him around, but we still don't know much about him. I think that he's the one that carried us away in the video, but Dawn still says we don't have enough info to make that conclusion. He's strange. He seems foreign to everything. Apparently Barry took him to Dunkin Donuts, and he was completely amazed at the taste of a donut. I'm starting to think that he's some sort of alien or something. Oh wow, I sound like Barry right now. And then there's his face... We still have no idea why he looks like Ash. Nobody, not even Dawn has an explanation for it._

_ Well, I just got a text from Barry asking where I am. I'd love to write more, but I guess I can't. Seeya. Love, May."  
_

May closed her diary, locked it, and slid it under her bed. She quickly texted Dawn back, saying that she'd be meet everyone in half an hour. She had already bathed, dressed, and brushed her teeth; all she had to do was pick out a bandanna to wear. She walked over to her dresser and opened the top drawer. She had many of them, all different colors and patters. They were assorted from top to bottom, the ones on top being her favorite ones, while the ones on the bottom were her not so favorite ones. She looked up and down, trying to find the perfect one to wear. But then, the perfect idea came to her mind. She closed her bandanna drawer and walked over to her closet. On the top shelf was a red bandanna with black polka dots, a bandanna that May hadn't worn in years. Her name was embroidered on the center too, in a beautiful cursive font.

"This is perfect." she whispered, grabbing the bandanna. She quickly tied it on her head, a big grin on her face. "Ash is gonna love this..."

Suddenly, May turned around. She could have sworn she heard something. It sounded like someone chuckling. Her eyes narrowed, and she scanned the whole room. Nobody was there. But she was sure she had heard something.

"Hello?" she called.

No answer.

"Weird... could've sworn I heard something..."

May shrugged, adjusted her bandanna, and grabbed her belongings. Before leaving, she looked back at her dorm one last time, and no one was there.

"I'm probably just hearing things..."

* * *

"Ugh..." groaned Ash impatiently. He, Dawn, and Barry were silently waiting for the brunette in his room. But after a while, Ash had had enough, and his patience had dispersed. "Where's May? She's late. I said that you should all be here by 10 o'clock... it's 10:12. She's _12_ minutes late."

"What are you so cranky about? Calm down. Once she get's here, you can stare at her all you want." replied Barry, a smirk on his face.

"I'm not upset because I want to stare at her..." said Ash, his voice cold and steely. "I'm just a little high strung because my best friend has been M.I.A. for a _week_. Listen Barry, I know joke-telling is your thing, but I'm going to ask you to grow up just a _tiny_ bit while we're on the search. Got it?"

"...Geez, sorry." muttered Barry.

"Ash, you need to calm down." said Dawn, sitting next to Ash. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You have to remember, you're still not fully recovered. If you get too worked up, you could get another headache."

"I'm not worked up."

Dawn rolled her eyes flicked Ash's forehead. Ash turned to Dawn, an eye twitching in irritation. He looked like he'd explode any minute, and Dawn was sure she could hear what sounded like feral growls coming from him.

"See? You _are _worked up. Just try to keep a level head, okay? We'll find him..." said Dawn. "Trust me, I'm just as worried as you are... maybe more."

"Yeah... I know..." sighed Ash.

Barry watched the two, his face straight. Ash and Dawn had gotten even closer than they already were in the week that they'd spent together, and if anyone had noticed, it was Barry. Unlike May, who had decided to just stay away from Ash's dorm, Barry had visited his two friends multiple times. He saw firsthand how close and casual they had gotten, and how much Dawn seemed to enjoy staying with Ash. He didn't like it, but it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. But he knew it'd bother May, and he knew that sometime soon, May would probably say something about it.

As if on cue, Barry heard what sounded like May's footsteps approaching. They seemed to be rushed. Made sense, she was late. He took a deep breath. It was the calm before the storm.

"Sorry guys, I'm late." said May, briskly walking in. The first thing she saw was Dawn sitting next to Ash, her hand on his shoulder. Her heart sank, but she didn't show it. She hid it with her usual smile. "What's up?"

"Nothing." answered Dawn quickly, removing her hand from Ash's shoulder.

"Cool." said May dryly.

There was an awkward pause, and there were a multitude of different emotions flying through the air. May was staring at Dawn, her facial expression unreadable. Dawn stared right back, a fearful look in her eyes. Ash looked at May, an eyebrow raised. And then there was Barry, who was just looking at everyone else's faces.

"Well it's great that you're here, May." said Barry gleefully, ending the tension filled silence. "Now that you're here, we can begin the search. Are we all ready to go?"

Everyone nodded. Dawn grabbed her belongings and put them in a pink satchel, while Barry grabbed his backpack and his 'Adventure Hat', which was really just a regular bucket hat. Ash already had his backpack packed, so all he had to do was stand up. While Barry and Dawn put their things together, Ash watched in silence, thinking about possible places that Gary could be. But his thoughts were cut short when the fourth person in the room walked up to him, planning on starting a conversation.

"Hey Ash." greeted May, walking up to the raven-haired 20 year-old.

"Huh? Oh, hey May." answered Ash with a smile. He had intended to give her the cold shoulder for being late, but after seeing her face, he couldn't bring himself to be annoyed with her. She just had that effect on him. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." said May, taking a step closer to Ash. "What about you? Is your brain all better?"

"For the most part."

"That's nice. So, have you noticed anything interesting about my bandann-"

"Hold on May, I just got a text message." said Ash, reaching into his pocket. He pulled his phone out, turned it on, and looked at the screen. His mouth opened, closed, and then opened again. He looked like he had seen something unbelievable.

"What is it?" asked May. "Who's it from?"

"Guys... it's from Gary." said Ash, his eyes wide.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Ash. In just a few seconds, the whole day's plans had gone out of the window. The person who they were about to search for, the person who they had been worrying about for the last week... had just texted Ash. Everyone looked at Ash with faces of confusion, wondering if they had heard him correctly. But to dismiss any misunderstanding, Ash nodded his head, reassuring them that they had heard him correctly.

"He wants me to bring you all to 'the spot' right now. He's got something really crazy that he's just got to show us..." said Ash confusedly.

...

"Oh thank goodness..." sighed Dawn in relief. "He's okay... I thought something terrible had happened to him..."

"Where exactly is 'the spot' though?" asked May, her hands on her hips. "There are millions of 'spots' around the world. What's he being all mysterious for?"

"He probably means the place where the meteor crashed. You know, that huge, hilly field." said Barry. "Where else would be considered 'the spot'?"

"Yeah, that makes sense." agreed Ash, scratching his chin. "I wonder what he's gotta show us... wait a minute, forget that, I wonder where he's been for the past 7 days, and why he hasn't responded to any of our texts and calls!"

"Ash, calm down..." cooed Dawn.

"Right, right..." he retorted, exhaling heavily. "Let's just go to the stupid field and see what he wants to show us. If it's really as great as he's making it sound, I might not kick his ass..."

May frowned. In just 3 simple words, Dawn had calmed Ash down.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" asked Barry, a little louder than necessary. "We know where Gary is! Let's go!"

"Wait A minute. Who's gonna drive us there?" asked Ash. "I can't. Dawn says I'm not allowed."

"I forgot my license in my room." said May.

"And I don't know how to drive." added Dawn. Everyone looked at her. "Well, I know how to operate a car, but I'm not the best driver out there. Remember? I failed my road test 9 times. Do you really want me to take the wheel?"

"I guess that leaves it to me!" said Barry. "I'll drive us there!"

O.o

T_T

._.

"What are the faces for?" asked Barry, slightly offended. "I'm a great driver! Follow me!"

Barry pulled his car keys out of his pocket and adjusted his bucket hat. He then marched out of the room, ready to prove how great he was at driving. Dawn, May, and Ash looked at eachother uneasily. May then shrugged her shoulders, grabbed Ash's hand, and jogged after Barry, effectively dragging Ash along with her. Dawn simply watched the two go, a small smile on her face.

But her smile quickly turned to a frown when she remembered that May was upset with her. May hadn't said anything that would make her think such, but she knew her friend. May acted a certain way when she was angry or annoyed with Dawn in particular. She became very passively aggressive, and she was doing just that. Though May would never believe it, Dawn's week with Ash was not all fun and games. It was actually torturous at times. She was always restraining herself, trying to keep Ash arms length away at all times. And then there were the times when he'd take a shower. Those were the worst times. Having to be in the same room as Ash without doing anything was hard enough. But being in the same room with someone as attractive and physically fit as Ash while he was dripping wet and in nothing but a towel? It was harder than any biology or physics test she had ever taken. His perfectly perfect to perfection body, his naturally beautiful tan, that wild raven hair, those deep brown ey-

"Hey, where's Dawn?" echoed Barry's voice down the hall.

"H-huh, I'm coming!" called Dawn, scurrying towards the door.

She looked back one more time, remembering the ups and downs of living with Ash for a week. She then closed the door, and as she did, she came up with the perfect word to describe the experience. Bittersweet.

_10 minutes later..._

Everyone sat in Barry's lime green Toyota Prius, which of course, was citrus scented. Ash was in the passenger seat, while May and Dawn sat in the back seat. The car was completely quiet, no one speaking. Barry was concentrating on the road, Dawn was staring out the window, May was staring at Ash, and Ash was staring at his lap, lost in thought. They had all been like that since the car ride had begun, and so far, nothing had broken the silence.

But then Ash sneezed, and that seemed to really bother Barry.

"Hey, if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you _didn't _spread your germs around my eco-friendly car." said Barry with attitude, his eyes still on the road.

"I'm not sick or anything. I just breathed in a speck of dust." replied Ash. "Nothing to worry about."

"Just open the glove compartment and clean your hands anyway..." said Barry distantly. "You know I'm a germaphobe..."

Deciding to follow Barry's wishes, Ash opened the glove compartment. Instead of his vehicle's papers and registration, Barry had filled his glove compartment with bottles of hand sanitizer. But it wasn't just a few bottles. When Ash opened the compartment, a few of them poured onto his lap, because it was filled to the brim with bottles of hand sanitizer. May rolled her eyes, and Dawn giggled. Ash just stared at the bottles on his lap, shocked.

"B-Barry..." said Ash, picking up one of the bottles. "In what way is having this much hand-sanitizer in you car normal?"

"There is nothing wrong with being clean." said Barry as he turned the steering wheel to the left, causing Dawn to shriek. Barry had driven off the road, into a rocky, wild area that was decorated with many different trees.

"Barry, what are you doing?! There's no road here!" cried Dawn.

"Yes Dawn, I know that. It's called off-roading." said Barry.

May snorted condescendingly. "Off-roading with a Prius?"

"There is _nothing_ wrong with driving a Prius..." snapped Barry through gritted teeth. It was obvious it wasn't his first time saying that sentence. Barry turned to Ash, hoping for support. "Right Ash?"

Ash looked out window, pretending to not hear the question. Barry glared at him.

"Right Dawn?" he asked, hoping for at least one person to defend his car. "Dawn?"

Barry looked into the rear-view mirror, and saw that Dawn had hidden her face behind a textbook. But something told him that she wasn't reading it, and she just didn't want to answer the question. Barry frowned.

"Whatever..." he said, turning his attention back to the rocky terrain he was driving on. "Alright, just a heads up everyone; we'll be at the site in about a minute or two."

"Already?" asked Dawn, putting down her textbook. "It seemed like a much longer journey last time... Approximately 30 min-"

"*sigh*, That's because you and I _walked _there last time," answered Ash. "Geek."

"Oh, right... Hey, what did you just call me?"

"Well, since you just hate the nickname 'Nerd', as a reward for helping me recover, I thought I'd come up with a new nickname. Geek. Isn't that just great?" asked Ash.

"I didn't really hate 'Nerd' as much as you're making it sound... it was growing on me."

"Alright, then I'll go back to calling you a nerd." answered Ash indifferently.

"But what if I want you to call me 'Geek' instead?" asked Dawn.

"Then that's what I'll call you." replied Ash.

"But I was just speaking hypothetically." said Dawn with a smile. "In actuality, I happen to like 'Nerd' better than 'Gee-"

"Okay, looks like we're here!" said May loudly, purposely interrupting what she saw as flirting between Ash and Dawn. "Big, open, hilly, grassy; this looks like the place!"

Ash and Dawn looked outside, and sure enough, May was right. They were at the site of the incident. Dawn then looked at May, who was looking back. May's face may have been straight, but Dawn knew better. It was just a mask, and all she had to do was be alone with May, and the mask would come right off, revealing the rage of a thousand and one she-demons. Just the thought of facing The Wrath of May Maple (a term Ash, Dawn, Gary, and Barry had come up with) was enough to plant fear deep within Dawn.

_"Whatever I do... I cannot be left alone with her..." _thought Dawn, opening her car door.

Everyone exited Barry's Prius, examining their surroundings.

"So, where do you think Gary is?" asked Barry, looking around.

"I don't know. I don't see him..." mumbled May.

"He's gotta be here somewhere... hold on, I'll be right back." said Ash, walking towards the closest hill. He walked up, hoping to get a better view of the landscape on top of the hill. He looked around, but even with his enhanced vision, he couldn't see anyone. But right when he was about to give up, he spotted someone in a black sweatshirt, about half a mile away. They had a lazy posture, one very similar to Gary's. "I think I found him."

"Where?" asked Dawn.

"Straight ahead, not too far." answered Ash, jogging down the hill. "Let's go."_  
_

Everyone nodded and followed Ash, who had begun to walk in the direction of the hooded figure. As they walked, everyone's minds were occupied with different thoughts. Very different thoughts.

_"He better have a good explanation for disappearing..." _thought Ash grouchily.

_"The first thing I gotta do is apologize to Gary... and then I want to see this surprise he has for us!" _thought Barry energetically.

_"I hope he's okay..." _thought Dawn worriedly.

_"Why hasn't Ash noticed my bandanna yet?" _thought May unhappily. _"I thought he would have noticed by now."_

It wasn't long before they reached their destination. Ash stopped walking and turned to everyone, his face showing it's usual amount of seriousness. "Alright, Gary should be just over this hill. Now before we go up there, we have to keep in mind that he's probably not going to be himself. I don't know what he's been doing in the past week, but I doubt that it's something that's been good for him. For all we know, he could have gone crazy or something. I'm not saying that he did, but just keep on your guard."

"You do realize I can hear everything you're saying, right?" called a voice from above.

Everyone looked up, and at the top of the hill was the hooded figure. Their hood obstructed the upper half of their face, leaving only their smile visible. They sounded like Gary, but they didn't at the same time. The voice sounded a little more husky, a little more rugged.

Everyone was silent, staring at the person. The longer they stared, the more the person's smile faded, until it was no longer a smile. It was a frown.

"Gary... is that you?" asked Ash, cautiously walking up the hill to meet the person.

The person responded by taking off their hood, revealing a head of brown hair. It was a complete mess, even messier than Ash's hair, and Ash's hair was notoriously messy. The person's black eyes met Ash's brown ones, a familiar smirk on their face.

"Gary motherfucking Oak, at your service." said the person coolly.

At the sound of that, everyone else walked up the hill, wanting to see Gary up close. He was dirty, with dirt stains and pieces of grass littered all over his clothing. He looked like he'd been through hell and back, but the smile on his face said otherwise. He looked genuinely happy to see his friends, and the smile on his face caused almost everyone to forget how he looked. Almost everyone.

"Gary! You're so dirty!" cried Dawn, patting dirt off his shoulder. "You look like you've rolled around in a dumpster! And where have you been?! You need to start explaining, because we were worried sick!"

"I'm sorry for not keeping in touch with you guys. Really, I am. But I couldn't. I was just too busy." said Gary cryptically.

"Busy with what?" asked May skeptically. "What kept you busy for 7 full days?"

"Oh you'll see in a few minutes." said Gary, flashing his notorious, trouble-making smile. "But before I get to my surprise, let me ask; What have I missed?"

"Hmph. To start things off..." muttered Ash crossing his arms. "You gave me a freaking concussion when you pushed me off of you in that fight."

"Really? But you look... healthy. I guess you're okay now?" asked Gary sheepishly.

"That's because Dawn here decided to live with me for a week to help me get better." said Ash, pointing to the bluenette who was picking grass clippings off of Gary's shirt. "Don't think you're getting away with it. I'll get you back someday, when you least expect it."

"I'm sorry dude... I didn't mean to cause that much damage. I just wanted to get you off so I could..."

Gary turned to Barry, who began to walk towards Gary. The two looked at each other, the only sound being the Spring winds blowing around them. Gary opened his mouth to speak, but Barry put a hand up, indicating he wanted to speak first.

"Hey, I'm sorry for the things I said last week. I was being dumb..." said Barry, outstretching his hand. "Truce?"

Gary looked at Barry, his face straight. He looked at Barry's hand, and shook it.

"Apology accepted. I'm sorry too." said Gary blandly. "And yeah, truce."

Everyone could sense the tension in the air, but it was nothing they weren't used to. As long as they both had feelings for Dawn, there would always be tension between the two. But at least they had formed some kind of peace treaty.

"Alright, we can all catch up more some other time." said May, interrupting everything. "I want to know what you've been doing, Gary. Where have you been, and what's this thing you've been so busy with?"

Gary smirked at May, an excited glint in his eye. "I've been here for the past week."

"_Here_? As in this field?" asked Ash. Gary nodded. "Why here?"

"Because," said Gary. "This was the only place that I could practice in peace, and without worry of any authorities finding me."

"Practice?" asked everyone in unison.

Gary nodded.

"Can you stop being so mysterious and just tell us what's going on?" asked May impatiently. "What were you practicing?"

"I'll show you right now." said Gary taking a step back. "Here goes... What I'm about to do is something I believe all of us can do. I've spent lots of time working on it, and I gotta say, I'm really excited to show you. Get ready, because I'm about to blow your mind.

Gary took a couple steps back, leaving about a 10 foot gap between him and everyone else. He stood still for a few seconds, allowing everyone to have a good look at him. He looked at everyone's faces, all of them eager to see what he had been so busy with for the past week. He smirked, and nodded his head. He then closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath. As he exhaled, he opened his eyes. Then, in front of everyone, Gary did something that no one had seen coming, something that would surely change the way all their lives were lived.

His feet slowly began to rise from the ground, a small gust of wind flowing from them. He rose into the air, gravity seeming to have no influence on him. He was floating. Everyone's jaws dropped. He was floating, In mid-air. Despite all the odd things they had experienced as of late, they were all thoroughly surprised at the sight of Gary floating. His feet were not touching the ground, and they didn't seem like they'd do so any time soon.

Gary saw everyone's faces, but their already astonished expressions didn't satisfy him. He was _floating,_ which meant, at least in Gary's opinion, that open mouths was not good enough of a response. So he took things a step further and went higher into the air, a solid 30 feet above them all. He looked down at his four friends, a huge grin across his face.

"_This _is what I've been practicing!" he shouted.

"He's... flying." mumbled Ash, staring wide eyed at his best friend.

"H-how is that physically possible?!" asked Dawn. "That's... that's against the laws of physics!"

"That's... that's just... wow..." said May in awe.

"What?! Duuuuuuuuuuuuude! WHAT?! DUDE YOU GOTTA TEACH ME! HOLY GUACAMOLE! I WANNA FLY TOO!" screamed Barry in disbelief, jumping around like a 5 year-old.

Gary smiled proudly. "I_'_m not done yet, boys and girls! Check _this _out!"

Gary put his fists ahead of him, and flew forward. He started off slow, but then, without warning, his speed tripled. Everyone watched, mouths agape as Gary flew across the sky at what must have been at least 90 miles per hour, a high pitched whizzing noise echoing through the air. Once he decided he was far enough, he flew right back to everyone else, even faster than before. Everyone stared at Gary as he got closer and closer, his hair flowing crazily in the wind. It was like something out of a superhero movie. He was literally soaring through the skies, like a bird, like a plane.

"Clear the way!" yelled Gary as he began to descend, lining himself up with the crest of the hill that everyone was on.

Everyone did just that, at just the right time too, because Gary's landing was not a graceful one. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Instead of landing like the great superhero he was flying like, he flew face first into the hill, the whole upper half of his body lodged into it.

"Is... is he okay?" asked May, wincing. "That looked like it hurt."

"Yeah, I'm okay!" called Gary, pulling his dirt covered face out of the hill. "As you can see, I still haven't perfected high-speed landing yet..."

"I have to say Gary, of all the crazy stuff you've done over the years..." said Ash, helping Gary off the ground. "This is definitely in the top 5."

"I agree. How on Earth did you discover that you can fly?" asked Dawn curiously. "Something must have happened that unlocked the ability, right? It's impossible for you to have begun to fly simply because you wanted to."

Gary paused for a second, his smile fading. But then he smiled again, and laughed. Dawn's eyes narrowed.

"I tripped and fell down the stairs of my apartment building. It was a pretty long fall, and I probably would have died if I landed." lied Gary. "I just thought of really hard about not wanting to die, and before I knew it, I was levitating, just a few inches away from the floor. It was awesome."

"Geez, so if you didn't unlock the ability to fly right then and there, you'd be dead right now?" asked Barry.

"Mhmm..." hummed Gary, his eyes momentarily losing their joy. "Dead..."

Everyone else, even Ash, seemed to believe Gary, but not Dawn. Just a single word in Gary's explanation had caused her to believe that he wasn't telling the full truth. He said he had tripped. _Tripped._

_"How could he trip...? I'm positive that our reflexes would prevent something like that..." _thought Dawn. _"And if my memory serves me correctly, the handrails on the staircase of Gary's apartment building are fairly high u-"_

"Alright guys, who wants to learn how to fly?" asked Gary, hoping to distract Dawn's thought processes with the prospect of learning to fly.

Before he had even told anyone to come, he knew that she'd be able to find some fault in his explanation, so he had thought of ways to distract her, and one of them was teaching everyone to fly. It worked, because everyone, including Dawn, quickly raised their hands. Gary sighed in relief. He didn't want anyone to know the truth about how he had discovered the ability, because he knew they wouldn't react well, especially Dawn. In reality, he had discovered they could fly when he had attempted to end his life. A split second after he had jumped off his apartment building, he regretted doing it. As soon as he had jumped off, he realized that winning Dawn's love wasn't the end all be all. As soon as he jumped off, he realized that he could probably plea for self-defense if the cops arrested him. As soon as he jumped off, he realized that his problems in life weren't permanent, they could have been fixed. That's where the truth came in. Just like he had in the lie he told everyone, he began to think about how much he didn't want to die, and right before he landed on the hard concrete below, he began to float, albeit shakily.

Ever since, he'd been honing his flight skills, using his training as a way to keep his mind off his troubles. It worked, because he felt much better than he had in weeks. As he trained, he began to feel more optimistic about his situation, and before he knew it, he was back to his old self, and it only took him 7 days to get that way.

"Okay," he said, clapping his hands. "The first step of learning to fly is simple. Jump, and think about _not_ landing on the ground. If you try hard enough, you'll stay suspended in the air. Don't be upset if you don't get it on the first try, it took me a couple hours to get it righ-"

"Like this?" asked May as she jumped. Her feet did not touch the ground. She looked down, and saw that she was levitating. "Oh wow, easier than I thought."

Everyone looked at May, all their faces showing different forms of shock. Ash was wide-eyed, clearly impressed with May's skill in an ability she had just learned of. Dawn looked mystified, still having trouble fully believing that they were capable of flight. Barry had a juvenile grin on his face, the same grin a little kid walking into a toy store for the first time has. But Gary? He crossed his arms, an eyebrow twitching in irritation. It had taken him several tries to do that after his failed suicide attempt, and May had just gotten it on her first try. His pride was hurt.

"...Beginner's Luck." he grumbled. "Good job..."

"My turn!" shouted Barry, jumping into the air. Unlike May, Barry did not achieve levitation on his first try. Instead, he landed painfully on the ground, face down. But that didn't shake his resolve. He got back up, and jumped again. Once again, he fell. Ash offered a hand to help him stand up, but Barry slapped it away. "No! I can totally do this! All by myself! I'M GONNA FLY!"

"It's really not that hard Barry." laughed May, her hands on her hips.

"Yes it is." snapped Gary immaturely, glaring at May. "Try moving, Ms. I'm-So-Good-At-This."

"Okay, I will!" answered May confidently. All she had to do was outstretch and arm, and she fell flat on to the ground. "Ow..."

"Yeah, ow." said Gary. He then turned to Ash and Dawn. "Alright, you guys wanna give it a try?"

Ash looked at Dawn, and shrugged. "Sur-"

"WOHOHO! LOOK AT MEEEEE! I'M DOING IT!" screamed Barry, gaining everyone's attention. After a few more failed attempts, he had gotten it, but instead of staying stationary in the air like May had before, he kept on going up. He was slowly rising into the sky, higher and higher and higher. "I'm flying! Yippeeeeeee!... Hahaha, I can't stop rising, but I don't give a damn, because guess what?! I'm flying!"

"Wait for me!" called May, jumping back into the air. "Gary, how do I go higher?"

"Just think about going higher, and you should be able to." ordered Gary. "The key is focus. Of course, the more you do it, the less you'll need to focus, but at your level, you should focus really hard. If you don't focus, you may go higher, but you won't be able to stop yourself. That's what Barry's doing. He's going to keep going higher if someone doesn't stop him."

Everyone looked up, and as if on cue, everyone heard Barry's voice screaming from above.

"Guyyyyyyyys... can someone get me down?! I can't stop!"

Everyone laughed, except for Barry. He was screaming.

* * *

After two whole hours of Gary's teaching, almost everyone had gotten the hang of flying. Like Gary had said, it only took focus. The first to fully master the basics was of course, May. 45 minutes in she had learned how to fly up, down, left and right, though she still couldn't fly very fast. But 2 hours in, she was soaring around almost as skillfully as Gary was, which deeply irritated the latter. After the two hours Barry had learned how to fly backward. That might have been impressive if he knew how to fly in any other direction. But he didn't. In two hours, he had _only_ learned how to fly backwards. There was Ash, who had only focused on flying upward, downward, and forward, since he believed that those were the more practical directions to learn. He wasn't as good as May or Gary, but he was better than Barry, and that was good enough for him.

And then there was Dawn. Dawn was by far the worst flyer of them all. In the two hours, she had just barely learned how to fly upwards. This was due to the revelation of a fear she never knew she had; a fear of heights. As soon as she had floated a few feet off the ground, she began to tremble and whimper. Despite everyone's words of encouragement, she just couldn't do it.

After everyone else had gotten the hang of things, Barry went back to his car and got a football out of the trunk. While May, Barry, and Gary were busy throwing the football back and forth in mid-air, Ash looked at Dawn, who had given up and decided to sit on a hill and watch everyone.

"Come on Dawn..." sighed Ash, floating down to her. He outstretched his hand for her to hold. "Here, let me help."

Dawn stared at Ash as if he were insane. "N-no, I'll pass. F-flying just isn't for me!"

"There's no need to be scared Dawn. It's really fun once you get the hang of it." said Ash, grabbing Dawn's hand by force. "I'm taking you up no matter what, so scream all you want, nerd."

"WHAT?! ASH KETCHUM, DON'T YOU DA-"

Ash blasted off into the air, bringing a screaming Dawn along with him. Her yells of terror were loud enough to catch everyone's attention. Barry and Gary simply laughed at Dawn's screams, but May didn't. She frowned, a small growl escaping her mouth.

_"I can't stand this!" _thought May. _"I knew this would happen! Dawn's practically the only girl he cares for now! he's barely said anything to me today! he hasn't noticed my bandanna... he hasn't noticed ME! All he sees now is Dawn. Dawn, Dawn, Dawn! Ugh, this is all Dawn's fault! I knew it! I knew her spending a week with him wasn't going to end well! Now he's gonna fall in love with her, date her, propose to her, marry her, have children with her, and they'll live happily ever after while I just become some ugly and lonely wench who's never going to find true lov-"_

"Hey May, think fast!" yelled Gary, throwing her the ball.

As soon as he threw it, Gary realized he had thrown it a little too hard. The ball whizzed straight towards May, who was still watching Ash and Dawn in blistering jealousy. Apparently she hadn't heard him when he told her to think fast, because she had paid no mind to the ball flying straight towards her face. Barry and Gary looked at each other, both of them realizing that World War III was about to begin. They both, especially Gary, physically and mentally prepared themselves for The Wrath of May Maple. As they had predicted, the ball hit May square in the face, her mind so occupied that her superhuman reflexes couldn't even dodge it in time. But instead of exploding in rage, something quite different happened. She began to plummet to the ground below, which wasn't good, since they were all hundreds of feet into the air.

"Holy shit! I think she's out cold!" cried Barry turning to Gary. "Dude, you gotta gotta save her!"

"I kno-" Suddenly, a blue-haired girl landed in Gary's arms, greatly confusing him and Barry. She had literally landed there, which meant that someone had dropped her there. "Dawn?! If you're here, then Ash is..."

"Going after her." finished Dawn shakily, holding onto Gary as tightly as possible.

All three of them looked, and saw Ash flying towards May as fast as he could. He looked like he was going at top speed, but it didn't seem like he'd catch her in time.

"He'll be able to catch her in time, right?" asked Barry, hoping for a yes.

"Judging by how fast he's flying," said Gary frankly, his face straight. "It'll be close. He might end up being a few seconds too late..."

Barry let out what sounded like a cross between a small whimper and a yelp.

_"C'mon Ashy-boy... you got this..." _thought Gary, refusing to take his eyes off of the scene unfolding.

Ash was flying his fastest, his arms by his sides. He didn't know what came over him; he could have just continued to hold Dawn, letting Gary save May. The chances of May being saved would've been a lot higher if he let Gary do it. But something took over, a heroic drive of sorts. Almost by instinct, he had quickly flown to Gary, dropped Dawn in his arms, and went after May. Or maybe it wasn't the desire to be a hero. Maybe it was his love for May. He didn't know why, but it didn't really matter, because he had already assigned himself the job, and May's life hung in the balance, so there was no turning back.

_"Come on... faster... faster..." _he thought, gritting his teeth.

Making his thoughts a reality, Ash's speed increased a little more, and just at the right time, because May was getting closer and closer to the ground. He placed his arms forward, preparing to catch her.

_"Almost there..."_

May was less than 20 feet away from the ground.

_"Almost..."_

10 feet away from the ground. Ash sighed in relief._  
_

_"Got ya."_

At the last second, Ash caught May. As soon as she landed in his arms, the two of them landed on the ground. But the landing wasn't a pretty one. They had landed on the top of a hill, and the force from Ash's catch caused them to roll down the hill like a log. In order to keep May as safe as possible, Ash wrapped his arms around her and held her close in a tight embrace. Not only did the hold keep her safe, it kept most of the grass off of her, allowing almost all of it to get Ash dirty instead.

Of course, that was when May regained consciousness. At first, she didn't even know what was going on. But then, over the course of 5 seconds, she somewhat figured it out. She remembered being hit in the head by the football._  
_

_"Dammit Gary... I must have passed out... but wait, if I passed out, that would mean I fell out of the sky...!"  
_

And then, it all made sense. She had fallen out of the sky, and someone, probably the person that was wrapped around her at the moment, had caught her in the nick of time. The only question she had was who caught her.

_"Well, I know it wasn't Ash... he was probably too busy playing with Dawn to catch me." _thought May bitterly. The rolling around her began to cease, and soon, everything was still. _"He still hasn't even noticed my bandann-"_

"Hey there." said Ash, interrupting May's thoughts. "You okay?"

May removed her face from the person's chest and looked up, revealing that the person who had caught her was the one person she thought didn't catch her. She simply stared at him, her eyes wide and her mouth closed. Ash raised an eyebrow. May slowly nodded her head, unable to do anything else.

"Whew, that's a relief. By the way, nice bandanna." said Ash, showing one of his rare smiles.

May gasped, and then beamed. "You noticed!"

"Of course I did. You don't think I'd recognize the custom bandanna I got you for your birthday a couple years ago?" chuckled Ash. "It took me forever to pick the right colors and designs..."

"Well, you've been so busy hanging with Dawn that I thought you'd forget..." said May quietly. "You two are awfully peachy as of late..."

Ash stared at May for a second, trying to comprehend what she just said. He then laughed his dark, evil-sounding laugh. "Oh May, you're a silly one. You have to understand, Dawn's like the younger/older sister I've never had. She's my best friend, second only to Gary. I'm so casual and open with Dawn because we're like brother and sister. Yes, she's very pretty, and very attractive, but I'm not dating her, nor will I any time soon. We're best friends, and nothing more. And besides, She's off limits for me anyways... Barry and Gary are already killing each other for her, so why would I enter the fray?"

"If you say so..."

"Would I lie to you?" asked Ash.

"I don't think so." giggled May. She then grinned mischievously. "But now that I think of it, you _are _pretty dark nowadays... you could be deceiving me."

Ash smirked. "Well, if you don't trust me, then you could just un-invite me to your blackbelt test..."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! That's in two days! Be there by 7:00pm!"

"Don't worry, I'll be there."

"Good..." sighed May, resting her head on the surface below her. It was a warm surface, and it smelled of cinnamon.

"Hey May?"

"Hmm?" hummed May, enjoying the warmth whatever she was laying on provided.

"Could you get off me now? I think they're laughing at us."

For the first time since she had begun talking to Ash, May looked at her surroundings. She looked up, and saw that Ash was right; Barry, Dawn, and Gary were looking right at them, cheesy grins on their faces. She then looked down, realizing that she had been laying on Ash the whole time, her head resting on his chest. Blushing more than she ever had in her life, May rolled off Ash, who was covered in grass clippings from their tumble down the hill.

The two of them stood up, and looked at the rest of their friends. They all seemed to be smiling, thinking Ash and May were adorable. Ignoring everyone's smiles, Ash and May flew back towards everyone else. As they flew, May thought of the conversation she had with Ash, and decided that she had nothing to worry about. If Ash had wanted to date Dawn, then he would have already. She had just been overreacting, something all of them had been doing lately. With her confidence restored, May flew a little faster, unintentionally leaving Ash behind. Ash sped up too, and within a few seconds, they had reached the rest of their friends.

Dawn was floating on her own, no longer being held by Gary. She looked nauseous, but regardless, she was flying by herself. Barry had his usual energetic smile on his face, and Gary had his usual cocky smile on his face.

"That was a close one." said Gary, patting Ash's back. "Almost lost her there, huh Ashy-boy?"

"Yeah... I think that's enough flying for today..." said Ash exasperatedly.

A chorus of mumbles were heard by everyone, all of them agreeing with Ash.

"Hold up. Before we go... I hate to bring up something negative," started Barry. "but what are you going to do Gary? About your situation?"

Silence fell over everyone, all of them looking at Gary. It was a great question, and they all wanted to hear his answer. Gary closed his eyes, thought for a second, and opened them.

"I'm going to turn myself in." he said, shocking everyone except Ash.

"Going for the Self-Defense plea?" asked Ash. Gary nodded. Ash nodded back. "Yeah, that's a wise choice. They were drunk guys right?"

"Yeah. _Really_ drunk guys." said Gary.

"Then yeah, you probably won't get in that much trouble." said Ash, his vast knowledge of Kanto's Criminal Justice System being shown. "But if you turn yourself in, you'll have to spend the night at the police station. You didn't kill anyone, so the cost to bail you out of there til the day of your court case won't be too much. I'll cover it. Then all you'll need is a good lawyer and you'll be alright. Don't worry, I'll help cover the costs for the lawyer too. There's a few really good ones out there that don't charge too much."

"You'd really do that... all of that?"

"Mhmm."

"Wow... Thanks man... come here, I need to give you a hug..." said Gary, floating over to Ash for a bro-hug. "Thank you so much... you paying for all that means a lot."

"No problem..." said Ash, hugging Gary back.

Everyone watched, and they all couldn't help but smile. It seemed like such a heart warming moment, one life-long friend helping the other out. But then, like a rock shattering a glass window, the moment was destroyed. What was the rock that destroyed the window of friendship? Simple. After they hugged, Ash delivered a devastating knee to Gary's groin. As Gary doubled over in pain, Ash simply cast a cold glare upon him, not a single bit of remorse in his soul.

"_That... _was for giving me a concussion." growled Ash. "I told you I'd get you back when you least expected it."

"Dude... harsh..." mumbled Barry.

"No... it's okay... I deserved that..." croaked Gary, his voice raspy and strained. "We're even now..."

Suddenly, everyone heard something. No one had expected it, and it caught everyone off guard. Perhaps the sudden nature of the sound is what added the eerie effect. It was a laugh, a girly one. Ash, Gary, and Barry immediately looked at Dawn and May, but much to their surprise, neither of the girls were laughing. Everyone then looked at each other, eyes wide. The laughing didn't stop for a while, and the longer it went on, the more confused everyone became. Everyone looked around, fearing the worst; that they had been seen by someone. But as they all looked around, their crystal clear sights saw nothing, only adding to the growing confusion. But May wasn't as confused as everyone else, because she remembered something similar happen to her in the morning, when she had put her bandanna on. It was the _same exact_ laugh she had heard earlier. Instead of looking around cluelessly like everyone else, she took a different approach.

"Show yourself!" she called out, startling everyone else. "I know you're there!"

"What's there?" asked Ash.

"_Something._" replied May. "Something similar happened to me this morning before I left my dorm. I heard the same laugh, but no one was there. I thought I was just hearing things, but now that it's happened again, I know something's there."

"Well whatever it is, it finds my pain to be just hi-fucking-larious." observed Gary, recovered from his injury.

"But what is it?" asked Barry. "Whatever or whoever it is, it was watching us. Now that you've mentioned it, I heard a small chuckle two days ago when I accidentally splashed some hand sanitizer in my eye. *gasp* What if it's a ghost? That'd be awesome!"

"*sigh*, it's just one thing after another..." groaned Ash, running a hand through his raven hair. "Now we also have a laughing entity stalking us... oh boy."

"Does anybody else find it crazy how calm we are about all this?" asked May. "Here we are, floating in mid-air, talking about an invisible presence following us around, when just a week and a half ago we were normal people, living somewhat normal lives. So much has changed in such a short time, and we all seem pretty okay with it. I just find it a little interesting how we've adjusted to this so easily. I feel like we've had these powers forever, when we only got them a week and a half ago."

"That's just how life is." sighed Gary. "It's full of twists and turns that just leave you going 'what the fuck?' and before you know it, you barely notice how crazy the twists are."

Barry nodded his head. "That's deep."

"Okay," said Ash, preventing any further conversation from starting. "I think it's time we all went back to our meeting place. Which is, if you don't remember, my dorm."

"I'll race you all to the car." challenged May, flying away.

"Um, okay?" replied Ash, flying after her.

Gary shrugged and followed them.

"Wait for me!" called Barry, preparing to fly after them. But before he could go, he felt someone grab his shirt from behind. He turned around, and looked at Dawn. In all honesty, he had forgotten she was there, because she hadn't spoken in while. Her face was straight, and Barry could tell that she was about to say something worth listening to. "What's up?"

"Barry, about that laugh we all heard..." she started, her eyes narrowing. "Didn't you find it a little... _familiar?_ I don't know where, but I'm absolutely sure I've heard it before."

"Now that you mention it... it did ring a bell in my mind a bit. Wait, but if we've heard that laugh already, then that means that the laugh came from a person we've met before, which means, unless the person is dead, it's not a ghost. Maybe it was Haxs? Or a demon? Or demon-Haxs?"

"You heard that laugh. It was feminine." said Dawn. "It wasn't Haxs."

"I don't know, Dawn. I'm sure we'll find it out." said Barry, grabbing Dawn's hand. It wasn't a romantic gesture, it was simply because she hadn't learned how to fly forward yet. "Now come on, everyone's almost at my car, and I don't want them to talk shit about my Prius behind my back."

Dawn giggled. "Okay... wait, I thought you didn't know how to fly forward yet?"

"I know how, I was just trying to be funny." admitted Barry.

And with that, the two flew towards Barry's car, where the rest of their friends were waiting.

* * *

_"That was way too close for comfort."_

She had really blown her cover. But come on, who wouldn't laugh at the sight of one guy kneeing the other in the balls during what was supposed to be a nice moment? She had lost her composure, and now they knew they were being watched. She had been watching them since it all began a week and a half ago. At first it was just to see if they were experiencing the same things. They were. But for some reason, she kept on watching them.

It was really cutting into her schedule. She had thought of stopping, but on the same day she had thought of stopping, Gary had discovered flight. So of course, she had to watch them some more, so she could 1) learn how to fly, and 2) see all their reactions. But she had stayed too long. Now they knew she existed. Well they already knew she _existed, _but not as their stalker. Even after blowing her cover, she wouldn't have been that upset if a certain blue-haired bitch hadn't recognized her laugh. _That's _what worried her. She knew how smart Dawn was, and she knew that if she didn't back off for a while, Dawn would easily uncover her identity in less than a week.

So there she was, flying back to her dorm. She landed in some nearby woods, planning on walking the rest of the way. But suddenly, a feeling overcame her. It was an icy, hollow feeling. Without even turning around, she knew who it was.

"Haxs." she spoke, crossing her arms. "What brings you here?"

"Oh nothing, just observing some flora." answered Haxs, hopping out of a nearby tree. "Say, have they caught you yet?"

"Nope." she answered. "Well, almost. It's nothing to worry about."

"I hope not, though it'd be fairly inconsequential if they did. You were once part of their bunch, right?"

"Meh, more or less." answered the girl, continuing to walk. "It really depended on whether I was in the mood to put up with Dawn's scientific stupidity or not."

"Ah, not a fan of Eve? Hm. Well, ta ta." said Haxs, walking away.

The girl turned around. "That's it? You don't have anything else to say or ask? You're less annoying than usual."

"Nah," replied Haxs, waving a hand in the air. "I'm going to a... hm, what are they called? Ah, yes, a bar. It's about time I try this 'beer' thing I keep hearing about. It sounds wonderful."

"You have fun with that."

"Oh, intend to get 'piss drunk', whatever that means." sighed Haxs. "Goodbye... hm, you know, you never gave me your name. I've been referring to you as 'that bitch' in my head since we've met."

The girl growled.

"If you really need to know, jerk, my name is..."

* * *

**I wonder what their name is...**** Ha, just kidding, I know who they are. Well, actually, I don't. I'm still deciding on who it is, but I'm not at the same time. It's confusing. Whatever, point is, they're stalking our 5 main characters, and they seem to have abilities of their own! Not just that, but they seem to have already met Haxs as well! Also, ****May's black belt test is fast approaching, and the time for Ash to ask her the question he's always wanted to ask is near! **But aside from that, we have Gary, who's seemed to returned to his old self... but for how long?! Either way, it's all a shocking turn of events! 

**Fun fact: I had originally intended for this chapter to be much longer, but I decided to just end it where I did and save the rest for the next one. **

**The next update may take a little longer. I've been pouring most of my attention to this story, which isn't too fair to the followers of my other stories. So I want to get a couple more chapters of those out before I write the next one for this. **

**...**

**Who is the stalker?**

**What will happen at May's black belt test?**

**Will Haxs get as drunk as he wants to?**

**Find out the answers to these questions and more in the next chapter of Pokemon: Divinus!**

**Seeya,**

**~DarkSlash9**

**P.S. For you action lovers, there's going to be TWO fight scenes in the next chapter! :P  
**


End file.
